Hidden in the Tides
by BandGeekNinja
Summary: *spoilers* A trap is set and two rivals must fight once again. But that battle is not the end. The past shall be sundered and a new, uncertain future awaits to roll in with the coming tide. Time Travel. canon may be torn to shreds. NO YAOI.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, I wouldn't be publishing it on a website, that's for damned sure.**

**I won't bore you with trivial nonsense before the story even begins, so please, sit back, relax and enjoy!**

It was rather quiet, Naruto thought. It was a warm, sunny day, a small breeze rustling through the limbs and boughs of the trees of the forest. But still they made no noise, no leaf sighing in the breeze, no branches creaking or moaning. The animals were also notably absent, by all rights the forest should have been teeming with all forms of wildlife on a day like this but they had seemingly disappeared without a trace. Not that he could blame them. Despite all of his bravado and boasts he always felt a nagging apprehension before the start of every battle, of every fight. That same apprehension seemed to pervade the very air coupling with the strange quiet to create a truly unsettling atmosphere.

"All infiltration squads, this is the five minute mark to mission start," The mission coordinator stated over the radio, the woman's voice a near perfect monotone. Uzumaki Naruto turned around and gave a cocky, wolfish smile to the group of men and women behind him and held up all five digits of his right hand. There was no need for him to speak and the ninjas that he commanded today had served with him various times throughout the war.

It had been two years and then some since the Fourth Great Shinobi War had begun and Naruto had grown both physically and mentally with it. Nearing the great age of eighteen Naruto stood almost even with Kakashi, his long blonde spikes, which he now held in a small pony tail, made up the difference. After out growing his second favorite set (cause face it, the set he wore when he was a genin was the best) of orange track suits he decided that it was time for a change.

He kept the dark red trench coat with the black flame trim that Shima and Fukasaku gave him right before his battle with Pain. In keeping with the trench coat's darker colors he now wore a custom made tactical vest, made in the style of Konoha chunin vests, which his friends had given him for his seventeenth birthday. It was mostly black with white trimming and on its back was a slightly larger version of Uzumaki clan symbol, the spiral. Underneath the vest he wore a simple black long sleeved t-shirt which covered a light layer of chainmail, the t-shirt had long stripes of a darker orange (Naturally he would never do away with his beloved orange) color that ran from his shoulder to the ends of the cuffs.

One of the biggest changes to his attire also attributed to the changes in his fighting style. He wore on both arms a pair of bracers that covered from his forearms to his forefingers. They were a gift from, of all people, Gai and Lee after Naruto had once asked for help in improving his Taijutsu style and he had "graduated" from their intensive training courses. It was a truly well thought out gift as they complimented his move-fast-and-hit-hard style of combat.

They were made of a type of steel that had a special compound mixed in during the refining process that let it absorb a person's chakra many times greater than normal steel would. The bracers also had a piece of armor that extended over his fingers and came to a sharp point so that when Naruto made a fist he would actually have a short blade to use instead of just his fists. After a bit of trial and error Naruto also figured out how Asuma could use his chakra to leap off the blade of his trench knives effectively extending their reach by almost a foot. Because his bracers had more material and thus more chakra absorption than Asuma's trench knives he could effectively create blades of pure wind chakra that extended over a foot and a half from his hands.

"All squads, this is the three minute mark to mission start," Said the mission coordinator. Naruto made held up three of his fingers casually and there was a slight bustle of activity behind him, although still very quiet. His squad was checking their equipment, making sure that kunai holders were fully stocked, they had the proper allotment of shiriken, those that had blades made sure that they were both safely fastened to their person and that they were capable of being easily drawn. Naruto himself double checked to make sure that his bracers were securely fastened to his arms.

The war with Madara was neither pretty nor clean. The first attacks made by Madara devastated the countries of Hot Springs and Frost, and although the major villages in those countries had been evacuated the joint shinobi forces had never expected that the main forces of Madara had the ability to travel underground.

They were virtually undetectable. The civilian casualties were already terrible when the first responders got there and only got worse as constant reinforcements from both sides quickly escalated the attack into a major battle. The Joint Shinobi Forces took a heavy blow that day as many lives were given to ensure the survival of the various civilians. The one good outcome of that battle was that it cemented the camaraderie of armies of the Shinobi Forces. In fighting and dying together individuals forgot where the man beside them came from.

It certainly helped make the next few months a bit more bearable as Madara and Kabuto's forces began a series of surgical strikes against the various countries. Attacks aimed not at the fighters themselves but at their supply lines and at the civilians, moves to lower the moral of the people and the fighters. That was the one advantage Madara and Kabuto had over the Joint Shinobi Forces; they didn't need to be concerned over the welfare of their troops, they just had to stay alive and they would succeed through attrition. But then the tide turned practically all on its own.

In all the chaos and death and fighting almost everyone had forgotten about Yamato. Everyone except for Naruto it seemed once he learned what had happened to his minder on that bumpy day inside the gigantic turtle and everyday when he wasn't at the front lines he constantly reminded Tsunade about it, about how they had to go and find him. She was sympathetic of course; she had been in his situation a few times before with her lover Dan and with Jiraiya but she couldn't promise him anything, not when the enemy was hitting them so hard.

But while Naruto was attempting to petition Tsunade, the man himself had not been sitting idle. Yamato was attached to the Stalk of the Gedo Mezo and connected to each and every Zetsu that had been spawned from the Gedo Mezo to date, their increased strength being pulled from his very being. However there was one thing that neither Madara nor Kabuto took into account that often times connections run both ways. Once Yamato was able to get his bearings he soon discovered the link between himself and all of the Zetsus. With a bit of tinkering he found that he could, from time to time, control a single Zetsu for a limited amount of time before the strain began to be too much.

With this potentially lethal ability a plan began to form, one that was probably even more dangerous than anything he had ever done (well, there was that one time…) given all the uncertainties that it involved. Mainly, would he wake up when he pulled himself out? And once his control over the Zetsu was gone what would it do? So many unanswerable questions floated around his mind but he knew that he would slowly be killing his comrades the longer he stayed. However he also knew he couldn't just jump right into it, he had to wait until he had a reasonably good chance of success to even attempt it.

And then the chance he had been waiting so long for fell into his lap. He felt it through the link when Madara had commanded nearly all of the Zetsus, from within the fortress and from the countries where they were harassing the shinobi armies, to move to a location just several miles away from Kumogakure. This left the fortress with barely a skeleton guard to protect it and the perfect opportunity for Yamato. Once he was sure that the horde was a good distance away he enacted his plan.

Once he had control of his desired Zetsu, Yamato made its way towards where he was implanted as non-suspicion arousing as possible, and given that he had not run into any other Zetsus he could only assume that he was successful. Once his Zetsu was standing in front of his still form he began to pry at the edges of the stalk where his body was, loosening it so that his Zetsu could pull him out quickly. He figured that he wouldn't be able to retain enough control over the Zetsu as more and more of his body was pulled out of the Stalk so he was trying to set it up so that when he pulled it would only take one big heave.

After some time the pressure was starting to mount behind his eyes letting him know that he was close to his limit on this particular Zetsu and he couldn't afford to take another one. He quickly set his Zetsu so that it had a firm hold on his shoulders and then had it pull with all of its strength. And then utter blackness overcame him without any warning. Of the few times Yamato told Naruto his story he would go quiet and stare off into space until Naruto prompted him to continue onward, and he was never told what Yamato saw while in the dark. A part of Naruto told him that Yamato wasn't sure either. He was able to wake up and make his way out of the base from there, not even running into any Zetsus on his way.

Naruto had seen first hand what had happened when Yamato had pulled himself out of the Stalk of the Gedo Mezo. The place that Madara was hitting with all his might was Kumogakure, home of A, the Raikage and supreme commander of the Shinobi forces. Madara's attack came as a surprise to everyone but Kumo wasn't completely defenseless either. Each of the major villages contributed a sizable portion of the forces to the shinobi army but they hadn't left their homes vulnerable. On top of the original Garrison defending Kumo Naruto and Killer Bee were also there, possibly why the attack was so heavy.

They were the reason why Kumo had lasted until reinforcements came because while they had two thousand defending Kumo, Madara had nearly eighty thousand at his command along side the Shinobi that Kabuto could resurrect. It was a long and hard battle for Killer Bee and Naruto and in the end they were tired and out of Chakra and about to be over run when suddenly all of the Zetsus just stopped. Right there, inches away from Naruto and Bee, their eyes were distant and unfocused. Naturally that was when A came tearing through the place with the mustered might of all four corps of the Shinobi army right behind him.

From that point on it couldn't even be called a battle and more like an execution and Madara was on the back foot having to rely on more and more on Kabuto, something that Naruto knew had to be irking the man as he had yet to see the two of them working together in the same relative space meaning that they didn't trust each other. The Zetsus hadn't been entirely neutralized. They were still very deadly; they just weren't as fast or as strong as they were, probably reverting to their pervious levels of strength and speed.

"All Infiltrations squads," Said the communications Kunoichi right at the one minute to mission mark, "Your commander-General Gaara." This made Naruto raise an eyebrow while there was a bit of static flowing over the transmitter in his ear as it the microphone on the other end was transferred to the aforementioned person. Gaara rarely spoke before missions began; the time when he took command initially at the start of the war was the only notable exception.

"All strike teams this is the Commander General," Gaara's voice suddenly announced from over the radio. Gaara had the kind of presence that when he spoke you couldn't help but stop what you were doing and listen, probably because he didn't speak at all unless absolutely necessary. All around Naruto the members of his strike team stopped moving, stopped readying weapons and checking equipment and just stood still so they could hear the words of their Commander General. "This is something you already know but I just wanted to reiterate it," he said, his voice always in the near monotone that everyone knew.

Without warning a wave of sand the size of a moderate village rose up and, seemingly of its own accord, slammed into the mountain stronghold. Fierce gales of wind erupted from that attack, swinging the sand around the edges of the mountain and into the open ground in front Naruto and his team. It looked like in that first initial attack the whole northern face of the mountain had been swallowed by the sand. Then followed, if you looked just hard enough, a series of flashing lights followed by forks of electrical discharges jumping up from the clouds of sand and then deep reverberations, the shock waves of the massive lightning attacks; the Raikage's follow up punch to Gaara's first strike.

"Everyone, go and get our brother back," Gaara commanded, high winds whistling in the receiver of his microphone. Naruto couldn't help but smile, if that wasn't a signal to attack then what was? He leapt forward and without even looking back at his strike ushered one single command.

"Go!" with that he and nine other men and women ran onto the flatlands that comprised the western approach to the mountain, normally a dangerous task given the open terrain but they had barely left the cover of the forest when they were obscured by the sands of Gaara's attack. They could see less than a foot in front of them and had to keep their mouths and eyes covered from the sand but they also had a sensor-nin, Taka, up front so he could forewarn his teammates of any sort of ambush. While it was their commander controlling the sand, a general attack on this scale was hard for anyone to control and so it had the effect of them willingly walking into a sandstorm.

Aside from the dangers of the sand attack they also had to worry about attacks from the enemy, the less than perfect visibility meant that the hordes of Zetsu and the various resurrected Shinobi skilled in assassination could use it to their advantage. The suddenness of the attack did work in their favor; it would take the enemy moments to properly react to the attack, to decide whether to split their forces and deal with the obvious frontal attack or to keep their forces close to deal with the flanking attack they knew would be sure to come.

Suddenly calling out in warning Taka jumped to one side just as a pure white fist erupted from the ground where he had been standing. Naruto swept forward, his left arm encased in wind chakra swept his arm, blade extended, in an arc through the midsection of the unfortunate Zetsu as it drew itself out of the ground. Not even looking at the body that he left behind Naruto quickly spun around and lifted his right arm in a forearm block. Steel on steel chimed as his attacker, Momochi Zabuza appeared out of virtually nowhere. Both men recoiled from the unsuccessful attack and Zabuza jumped back into the encompassing sands while Naruto's arm was tingly and slightly numb.

Naruto stood still listening, the harsh winds of Gaara's sand storm screeched through the air, almost drowning out the desperate struggles of his squad as they dealt with the other ambushers. Suddenly there was a soft sound behind him, almost lost in the storm, making his instincts scream in warning. Naruto ducked and rolled, the massive slab of steel Zabuza called a sword sweeping right where his neck should have been.

"Brat," Zabuza commented as he pursued Naruto, his sword slashing and hacking while Naruto dodged and blocked, though there was more of the former and less of the latter as the force behind the blows numbed his arms.

"Stop calling me that," Naruto groused, sliding under another sweeping attack and past Zabuza's guard. His hand went straight into the man's chest and out his back, his hand covered in chakra and dust.

"To obvious brat," Zabuza said as he delivered a knee strike to Naruto's stomach, while Naruto's hand was still in his chest. What Zabuza was referring to was his control seal, the mechanism that lets Kabuto control all of the resurrected ninja. It was devastating in the beginning when the Shinobi forces first encountered the resurrected ninjas. It ravaged the morale of the various ninja who they had once called brothers or sisters but they were also devastating in that they could not be destroyed so easily. It didn't matter what vital areas they hit, how many techniques they threw at them, the resurrected would just reform and carry on whatever path of destruction Kabuto sent them on.

At first it was believed that the only way to defeat them was to either seal away the soul of whomever they were fighting which wasn't always practical because those who _could_ accomplish such a thing were hard pressed to do so in a battlefield. The second method was to bind the physical body down but that proved to be only a temporary remedy as either the binder ran out of chakra, they broke their bonds, or, ultimately, Kabuto would just recall them and then re-summon them somewhere else.

Naruto growled as he jumped back from Zabuza, the strike hadn't been all that powerful due to their close quarters and the mail shirt under his uniform had absorbed the majority of the blow. "I don't have time for this," he said, closing his eyes for a moment. Seeing that moment of weakness a number of commands inlaid in the control seal overtook Zabuza and he found himself dashing forward against his will, moving as fast as he could to strike Naruto. But he knew he would fail, knew that he would be defeated in less than a second once he saw that pose. It happened the last four times he fought the brat.

Just as Zabuza swung his blade down Naruto was encompassed in a golden light, his entire body covered in a powerful yellow chakra with the odd symbols that have come to be known as the marks of the Rikudo Sennin forming around his navel and neck. Right after the change an ethereal claw shot out from the coat of chakra surrounding his body and caught the sword mere inches from his face.

"I'm sorry to do this to you again Zabuza," Naruto said, he then plunged his right hand into the man's left thigh and pulled out a kunai with a piece of paper attached to it. As soon as he did that a coffin appeared, closed up around Zabuza and puffed out of existence in a cloud of smoke. Naruto destroyed the piece of paper almost as an afterthought as he commanded seven claws from the envelope of chakra around his body out into the surrounding walls of sand. He didn't need to see where the enemies were, because when he accesses Kyuubi's chakra he could sense a whole host of things, far more than just chakra. He could sense a person's emotions, their intentions, their will and the Zetsu clones had a very repugnant will.

Seven meaty thumps later eight forms came into view around him; most were barely scratched but slightly winded while two had larger wounds that would need attending before they could move on. While his group quickly fixed each other up Naruto noticed that they were a member of his group. "What happened to Taka?" he asked. The medic of the squad, a young man named Juu from the Hidden Waterfall village from the look of his gear, answered without looking up.

"There was a second Zetsu waiting when he jumped away from the first, he had no time to react," he said. Naruto didn't say anything, just nodded at the medic. This wasn't the first person he had lost in a big battle, and if the war kept going the way it was he wouldn't be the last either. He had learned to deal with the loss as only one with hardened experience can but that wasn't to say that it didn't eat at him when he had a moment to himself.

Once the last person was healed they set off again, the sands of Gaara's attack were finally starting to subside and the loud sonic booms were starting to become more and more common.

"Man, the Raikage is really starting to go to town," muttered one of Naruto's team as they came up to the rock wall base of the mountain they were assaulting. As they reached the base they began to climb the way only shinobi (and samurai too) could, by not even stopping and running straight up.

"Of course he would, his brother's in here somewhere," replied another, a young woman from Cloud. She was about to say something else but a particularly violent attack struck just overhead making the whole mountain tremble, causing the kunoichi to lose concentration and thus control over her chakra and begin a deadly tumble down its sheer wall. Naruto reacted without thinking and gathered up the Kyuubi's chakra, shooting out an arm and catching the falling woman before she barely fell a hundred feet.

He pulled her back up to his spot and placed her gently on the rock wall where she replaced her footing. A very faint blush graced her cheeks, though it was almost hidden by her dusky skin tone that was almost exclusive to Lightning Country, as she nodded her thanks to him and he wouldn't have noticed it if he hadn't also felt her gratitude and ... appreciation for his physical attributes. Naruto almost sighed. Another fan to his already sizeable following was something that he really didn't want.

Damn the Kyuubi and its extra sensory powers!

"Enough chatter, keep your mind focused on the mission at hand. Killer Bee is counting on us," Naruto said, firmly ignoring the Kunoichi. The mission objective was simple, save Killer Bee. Actually getting into the mountain fortress that may or may not actually be holding Bee that no scouting party has ever returned from was anything but simple. The only reason they were committing such a large force and show of power was that it was the most heavily guarded enemy instillation within range of Killer Bee's abduction.

Naruto and his team were one of six specialist teams sent into the interior while Gaara and the Raikage led a force of a thousand men and women making a lot of noise hoping to draw enough of the enemy's attention so that the infiltration teams would have a chance slightly better than next to impossible in finding and extracting Killer Bee. Naruto personally felt that all of the Kages should be here at this battle, they alone would have increased the mission's success nearly ten times but as it were the Mizukage and Tsukikage felt that it would be a waste, that there wasn't enough reliable intelligence to make it worth while.

Tsunade and the leader of the Samurai nation, Toshiro Mifune, remained neutral when the issue was brought up, they wouldn't give the attack their blessing but they also felt that if there was such a chance that Killer bee was there that Madara and Kabuto could not get their hands on the Hachibi. There was no stopping the Raikage from committing himself to the cause of rescuing his brother and he would have committed almost all of Cloud's forces as well but Gaara had been able to talk him out of it once he also pledged himself to Bee's rescue. Gaara was the field general of all Shinobi forces so if a major attack on an enemy base was to occur then he would have to be there.

Naruto himself had to fight nearly tooth and nail to get involved in the attack. He knew that he could be captured but with an attack going on and Madara and Kabuto attempting to draw out the Hachibi they wouldn't have a lot of attention to spare in capturing him. In the end he even threatened that they couldn't stop him that he would just flash to the battlefield once it was started. Naturally such a declaration earned him a scolding from Tsunade and a tick in the temple from the Tsukikage. The Mizukage didn't careless, despite having Naruto on her 'must have' list, whether he went or not, at the very least it would ensure Madara's and Kabuto's attention were on the battle and not elsewhere.

After a few moments of scaling the mountain wall they came upon a proper ledge, wide enough for one person to walk on and sturdy enough to withstand the Raikage's bombardment. Once all of his team members were on the ledge and the immediate surroundings were checked for hidden Zetsus Naruto picked a direction and moved on, his team following behind. There were several near misses, boulders falling, bits of the ledge giving way underfoot, the usual, until they finally found a crevice that was large enough for a man to walk through. It was pitch black inside the crack so with a gesture of his hands everyone in the team drew out some chemical glow sticks, the kind you snap to activate.

Naruto took one of his own glow sticks and threw it down the passage way. It clattered and rolled to a halt some 30 feet away from the entrance, its eerie green glow showed that the walls and floor were blank of any trigger seals for traps. The medic looked at Naruto, giving a questioning look, whom just shrugged his shoulders and took the first step in. Once he reached the glow stick that he threw he stooped to pick it and as he was coming back up he came face to face with the half face of a Zetsu.

"Shit," was all the time he had to say before the Zetsu fell on him, its inhumanly sharp teeth finding his jugular. The rest of his team didn't have time to react either, as they had already been killed. But as the Zetsus were getting up from their kills, there was a sharp sound, like a balloon popping and suddenly all of the bodies disappeared into clouds of smoke. The two Zetsu closest to the entrance were the only ones to know what was coming afterwards.

"Katon: Karyuu Endan no jutsu!"

Kamatsuchi was dead, this much he was allowed to think. Like any true Samurai he gave his life to protect the lives of his people and his lord only to be resurrected by that snake (literally) Kabuto. At first he tried to rebel against him, to kill him but, as in the old stories, Kabuto's mind was simply faster than his blade and had placed him into this sorry state. He only spoke when a direct answer was needed and in the tersest way possible, he stood around at his designated guard point waiting for something to happen.

Whatever portions of his mind that weren't under Kabuto's control practically screamed in joy when something finally did happen, though those portions were a very, very small minority and didn't even register as a twitch anywhere on his body.

When jets of flame suddenly came spewing out of the small crevice that served as the south entrance, Kamatsuchi drew his swords and waited for the intruders, aiming to ambush them. He stood still, swords at the ready watching the outline of the crevice, an undead, inhuman, and indestructible killing machine. But he still had a human body.

The intense light that the flames gave off hurt his eyes, though that was one of the portions of the mind that Kabuto turned off, but they also stunted his night vision, and so he couldn't see until his eyes readjusted. The only help that he got were these odd chunks that were still burning spread out around the fissure; they did have the downside of causing his eyes to adjust slower than was wanted.

Suddenly he didn't have to worry about night vision as a pair of kunai came whistling from the fissure to strike him in the eyes. He would be blind for a few moments at least because of this but he didn't care, he merely charged forward regardless of the lack of vision swinging his swords as he did, his chakra pouring into the blades extending and sharpening them to lethal lengths. His charge didn't last for more than several steps as there were several crunching impacts on his chest and then a sudden sense of vertigo overcame him as his feet no longer touched the ground. He might have been more effective if Kabuto let him have the thought to actually pull the kunai out. Or maybe he wanted it that way.

As Kamatsuchi pulled himself from the wall he finally made a sound. He opened his mouth and let out the highest pitched screech that Naruto or anyone on his team had ever heard. Even most children couldn't reach that high a pitch let alone from a grown man of his size. It continued on for several moments until finally Naruto had overcome the sound and tore Kamatsuchi apart. He started at the throat but the damage was done. Even as he was tearing the control talisman to shreds Naruto began to sense a torrent of presences coming at them from all sides.

"Shit!" he said turning to his team. "Everyone form up, we're about to have a lot of company!" everyone snapped to attention at the urgency in his voice. "Ray, Genzo, and Tomi, take the left flank. Hiyori, Gurusu, and Furyuu, take the right. Ten and I will have the center and Juu will stay back to support whoever needs it. Stay focused people."

To the normal eye it looked like nothing was happening that nothing was coming. But Naruto had worked with several members of this team before and they all knew when to trust his judgments and to snap into action when he gave the order. They didn't waste any time, they all jumped into their positions at the instant he was done giving orders. As soon as the last person was in position a wave of white bodies broke the surface of the stone floor, wicked smiles and inhumanly sharp teeth.

Naruto had no need to issue the command to attack for as soon as the first heads broke the bed rock he and his team let loose. Fire, lightning, and wind lashed out from their line, killing the white Zetsus by the dozens. The ones that were able to run the gamut of destruction were almost immediately cut down by Naruto and his ethereal claws. Once the initial wave of attacks from the three ninjutsu specialists wore off more and more of the Zetsus were able to get through and Naruto found himself hard pressed to keep up with the near endless waves of enemies. However, once the Zetsu clones reached the battle line the Taijutsu and weapon specialists went to town and soon bits and pieces of them were flying every which way.

They fought on for what seemed like only seconds, the near endless tides of white never slowing but at the same time they were keeping up with the attacks. That is until a sudden change in the enemy's attack pattern. Naruto sensed a shift in the way the Zetsus were coming at them, like a wave the direction they were coming from altered.

"Up and to the left!" He roared over the chaos, pointing in the direction where the most concentrated front was coming from. There was no hesitancy within his comrades as they obeyed and renewed their attacks with vigor, focusing on the area he had pointed out. Before any of the Zetsus had a chance to emerge the converging attacks blasted away layers of the stone ceiling, flaming chunks of Zetsu falling with chips and fragments of rock. With the first rank of attackers decimated the second rank emerged right after them, giving no thought to their fallen. They just charged wildly into the next wave of attacks, as did the wave right after them and the wave after them. Naruto was getting frustrated, they had just barely gotten into the stronghold and already his team was starting to wear down. If they were somehow able to get past this onslaught they probably wouldn't have it any easier because by now the entirety of the stronghold's defenses had to know they were here.

Things took a turn for the worst when a passage opened on the far side of the room introducing a fresh wave of Zetsus plus a vanguard of three resurrected Ninja, one of whom was Kankuro. The formerly dead man gave Naruto a blank stare and summoned two of his puppets without preamble. And then they lost a Taijutsu specialist. He had over extended himself in taking out a Zetsu which left him open for two more to swarm him and bear him down to the floor, killing him with fists and teeth and chakra suction.

Naruto didn't have much time to react to the hole in their line as he was immediately set upon by Kankuro and his two puppets. Having to fend off a horde of clones and trying to fight a fully fledged puppet master at the same time is not what Naruto would call fun, in fact it was down right difficult. If Naruto paid the least bit attention to the two poison spewing constructs then he would be swarmed by four or five Zetsus but if he tried to focus on the clones then he would be open for Kankuro and friends. All the while his team was being pressed harder than ever by the Zetsu horde, they were rapidly being forced back towards the crevice where they entered the room from. Naturally this would be the wisest course of action as it would limit the number of enemies attacking you all at once, however given the abilities that Zetsu possessed they would be walking into a deathtrap.

"Enough of this," Naruto hissed, his teeth clenched in frustration. He cupped his hands together and a black ball of energy started to form between them. Kankuro and his two resurrected compatriots took notice and rushed straight towards him, knowing almost instinctively what he was up to. They weren't quite fast enough.

"Beast Bomb!" Naruto roared and thrust his arms and the dark sphere forward. There was an incredible noise and he lost all sight for a second. Then he blinked and he could see again. Kankuro and the two other resurrected ninjas were no where to be seen as was over half of the attacking mob of Zetsus. Plus there as a rather sizeable dent in the back wall of the chamber. There was a momentary lull in combat as both sides took in the damage of that one attack.

From the smoke clouds thin wisps starting forming and flowing, like tiny streams of smoke propelling themselves of their own will rather than by the air flow. They began to congregate and grow, going from shapeless blobs to the vague shape of bodies in seconds. After a few more moments the last of the limbs to be reformed were in place but their eyes had lost that empty, heartless look and they had regained a measure of life (ironic yes). Kankuro's eyes, however, quickly grew in surprise when he recognized that it was Naruto in front of him, fear and panic quickly overcoming even that.

"Naruto! Get out! It's-" He shouted just as coffins appeared. Kankuro attempted to block the lid to his with his hands but to no avail, the lid just nipped off the offending hand. He was gone in a puff of white smoke along with the other three ninjas. '_It's what? A trap? That's obvious to even me. Too late? Fuck it, I'll just tear Kabuto's ass in half,_' Naruto thought as he glared at the spot where Kankuro was, his fists clenched tightly into balls.

"Naruto-taicho?" a voice inquired behind him. It was his team's medic, Juu. The man was standing behind him looking at the still sizeable force of Zetsus looking at them. They had backed off from the group once Naruto unleashed the beast bomb but they hadn't left either. It was like they were waiting for something. Naruto didn't really want to find out what that was.

"How bad is it?" he said, his voice barely more than a whisper.

"Sir, we're barely above half strength. Furyuu, Tomi, and Genzo were all killed during the fight, Gurusu, Hiyori, Ray, and I have already used most of our chakra and will be useless in the next fight," He said, his voice barely louder then Naruto's, his exhaustion proving the truth in his words. "Sir what are your orders?"

The commander that had somewhat grown, but was mostly beaten, in Naruto was split; one side said that he should get his people out of there, to let them rest up and recuperate while the other, harsher half, stated that they wouldn't get a chance like this again. That was his loyalty to Killer Bee speaking, he couldn't just abandon his friend to the clutches of Kabuto and Madara and let the Hachibi get sucked out of him. After several agonizing seconds he had made up his mind. He opened his mouth to give his orders but was stopped when a thunderous crack tore through the air, startling everyone. Not even a heart beat later a second crack resounded throughout the chamber and all eyes turned towards a series of spider web cracks on the roof of the chamber.

The third crack wasn't so much another resounding slap as it was the crashing of thunder when the ceiling suddenly burst like a damn and a ton of stone and rubble fell to the floor, a neat man sized hole where it hadn't been before. Standing amidst all the rock and stone and dust was a lone man, his fine black hair swaying in the somehow existent breeze. His legs were spread in a sturdy stance and his right arm stretched out, the thumb on the hand also stretched out pointing towards the ceiling. His black eyes shined with an inner fire that would have made most bonfires look microscopic and his all too white teeth shined in an unnatural light as he smirked.

Naruto felt a crushing need to place a palm on his face. His remaining squad, at least those not of Konoha, stared in bedazzlement at the lone heroic figure. One of the Zetsu, possibly a defected one, moved to attack the green spandex clad man. Rock Lee gave a manly frown as his moment was interrupted when the creature attacked, its right arm swinging with its hand open and fingers cupped like a set of claws.

Did this monster not know who he was? Had it not seen him so thoroughly decimate the armies of its brothers in battles past that almost all Zetsus had a flee-on-sight command built into them? Disgusted in this thing's poor memory Lee took his already extended right arm, balled his fist, and slammed it into the side of the Zetsu's head. The creature was sent in a cart-wheeling motion through the air and into the far wall with a resounding crunch. All eyes had tracked its flight and when its flight came to an end all eyes slowly returned to Lee who had resumed his previous posture.

One of Naruto's squad lost control and muttered, "Epic…" to which Naruto did palm his face.

All in all, Rock Lee was in the house.

**Author's Notes: I wouldn't say that this is my first attempt at a story but this is the first one that I have taken seriously. It wasn't my idea to begin with, it is the brain child of one Tellemicus Sundance, he just let me have my way with it with almost no thought what so ever and for that I am truly thankfully to him. **

**Yes this is a time travel fic, will there be some horrible contrivance like a set jutsu or something that throws our hero to the whims of time? No, I actually consulted with Quantum Physics for their travel method. What that method is, you'll just either have to wait and see or figure it out for yourself. That is all I shall say on the matter until later. If you do figure it out I'll give you a cookie.**

**That's it for now other than me begging for reviews and such. As an aspiring writer constructive criticism is a highly valued commodity that sustains me very being. Praise also goes a long way towards my self-esteem so don't be shy with that either. If your gonna flame me because you can, well go screw yourself, you're a waste anyways. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, I wouldn't be publishing it on a website, that's for damned sure**

**Well, here's the second chapter for ya, I wont waste your time with unnecessary crap so just sit back and enjoy**

"YOOOOSH!" the young lion roared, his movements a green and orange blur as his fists and feet decimated the army of Zetsus before they could even blink. Oh sure the Zetsus all tried to run and yes some of them were successful, able to melt into the ground and flow beneath their attacker's feet without hindrance. The rest, however, were not so lucky, for when Rock Lee commits to a battle he does not stop until either he or his opponent are a bloody mess on the floor. And many Zetsus were already smears on the floors and walls, some even on the ceiling.

Eventually the Zetsus' fight portion of their 'fight or flight' instincts overrode their flight commands and they began to fight back. Lee merely laughed and kicked it up a notch, bashing groups of Zetsu into paste with each kick. Despite his enormous advantages over the Zetsu horde Lee was still only one man and the Zetsu were still many despite their grievous loses. Finally they had surrounded Lee and were beginning to pile on top of him, into one big gigantic clump of withering white bodies. In other words: one big ass target. Unbeknownst to the Zetsus a second figure dropped from the hole in the ceiling that Lee had just created, an oversized fan grasped in her hands in a ready position to swing the fan forwards.

"Ninpo: Kamaitachi no jutsu!" Temari cried, swing her fan in time with her outcry. Swirls and whirls of razor sharp wind slammed into the unsuspecting dog pile of Zetsus, the side facing Temari took the brunt of the attack and was reduced into chunks of dark green gore. The other half of the dog pile was blown away by the left over hurricane force winds, landing in piles and clumps with bone breaking force. And standing there where is all happened was Lee with nary a scratch on him. The few Zetsus that could attempted to run but Lee was on them like Sasuke on vengeance and in short order the only living beings in the cavern was the remainder of Naruto's team, Lee and Temari.

"Naruto, report," Temari said, folding her battle fan back and returned it to its holder across her waist, the remains of her squad dropping in from the ceiling like her and Lee. Her eyes looked tired and there was a slight tremor to her hands as well. All classic signs of fatigue, showing that this wasn't their first fight today. They probably came straight to Naruto's aid once they were done dealing with whatever they ran into. On top of that, all of the infiltration teams that went in were ten-man squads, and Temari was missing half of her squad. Naruto couldn't help but shake his head; they had only barely gotten into the place and were already taking heavy losses.

"Not much to report," Naruto said, stepping up to Temari. "We found an entrance, cleared it of traps, and entered this room. We found and neutralized a guard but not before he released some sort of signal and then we were attacked by an entire army of Zetsu. We held them for a couple minutes but then they had gotten reinforcements from three resurrected Ninja. I blasted them—"

"Was Kankuro…" she started but her voice broke and she looked away, unable to finish the sentence.

"Yeah," Naruto said, wishing there was more he could say, to help her. But this was neither the time nor place for such things. He gave her a moment to compose herself and when she looked back at him and nodded he continued with his report.

"I blasted them with the Bijudama and once they reformed they were immediately recalled. One of them did try to warn me about something, possibly a trap but he was gone before he could finish."

"What did he say?" Temari asked.

"'Get out! It's too' was all he said before his coffin closed," Naruto answered. Temari was silent for a moment while she processed that bit of information.

"So either it's a trap or it's too late," Temari said at length, her face a mask. Naruto knew what she was thinking. With his squad at half strength and the remaining men near the point of exhaustion and with no feasible progress made it would be wise to fall back. And then they had to consider that this entire situation could have been engineered to draw Naruto out, the last of the Jinchuuriki. It would definitely be a blow against the allied shinobi forces if both he and Killer Bee got captured, not to mention that the world would be screwed.

"What are you going to do?" Naruto asked. He knew what he was going to do, but he needed to know what Temari was going to do so he could plan accordingly. She looked at him for several agonizing seconds, her eyes betraying her conflicting thoughts and emotions while the sounds of battle slowly grew louder and louder. He could practically see her wishing Shikamaru was here, though he would dare not voice such thoughts to her. She could hit almost as hard as Sakura when angry. She let out a weary sigh and turned towards her squad.

"We've got no choice but to pull back," she said, her voice tired. "If the rest of this place is like what we've encountered already, then there is no way in hell we can continue on with the mission." She said this loud enough so that both squads heard this statement. While most nodded their heads in agreement with her assessment, save Lee who looked disappointed about having to leave. Two of them, Ray from Naruto's squad and a young woman from Temari's squad, looked up at Temari with anger and dissent in their eyes.

"Temari-taicho, what about Bee-sama?" the woman asked, wobbling to a stand.

"We can't just leave him to these monsters!" Ray shouted, standing beside the woman. Temari scowled at them but there was no real heat to it, she was after all in their position at one point so many years ago.

"We aren't abandoning him," Temari said, walking towards them, "But we aren't a lot of help at the moment either." At this the young woman and Ray both looked rebellious so Temari tried the reassuring approach. "Remember that we were not the only squad to enter the mountain, were we may fail, the others will have succeeded," this seemed to do little to convince them, their love for Killer Bee forcing their training into the back burner so Naruto decided to add in his two cents as well.

"We're not all abandoning him," Naruto said, and all heads turned towards him. "I was planning on going on ahead and having my team return. I'm the only one that's still in any condition to fight after all that," he said, gesturing towards the pile of dead Zetsus.

"Naruto, that's suicide," Temari said, concern lacing her voice. Naruto shrugged.

"Its suicide to continue on with a half-dead team," he countered, then he turned to his team and said, "No offense guys," they all just waved him off. "Besides," he continued, "it's not particularly wise standing around in the middle of hostile territory drained as you all are. I'm going; I'll get more done by myself anyways." At this Temari glared at him.

"I can't just let you go alone," she said, and then she whipped around to Lee. "Lee, you're going with him." The young man leaped and cried for joy. Naruto resisted the urge to face palm again. Lee was an awesome individual, passionate, compassionate, determined, but at times he could be too much even for Naruto. Still, he knew he would have to rely on Lee before this mission ended, of that there was no doubt.

Lee came running over to him, his all too white teeth glinting eerily in his wide Gai-like smile. "Yoosh, Naruto-kun! Let us be off. The flames of our youth shall light our way!" Naruto did what he always did in this situation and grinned and nodded at the boisterous man.

"Sure Lee, just one second," He said before turning to the remains of his team, "Guys, I want you to follow Temari out of here. No arguments, you're all running on fumes and I hate to say it but with the way things are you'll just get in the way." At this, his group, and Temari's as well, gave looks of displeasure and anger, not that he could blame them.

Nobody liked being told that they were in the way of things, but sometimes it was a necessity if it got them to see things in the bigger picture or so says the commander in his head. He did soften their looks by saying, "Besides the more that get out, the more that can fight again. We've buried or burned enough of our friends as it is." The last part was said in an almost whisper but everyone heard and many a forlorn expression was to be seen. Nobody fought against leaving after that and they made their way out however Temari turned towards Naruto and Lee one last time before she entered the crevice that served as entrance and exit to the mountain hold.

"If I don't hear from either of you within two hours, I will advise the Generals of your situation and recommend the appropriate actions." In other words 'you have two hours before we come in and drag your asses out, clear? Good.' Finally she saluted them both to which they returned crisply before she bent and exited the building. Naruto turned towards Lee and saw that his odd smile was no longer there, but a small smirk warmed his eyes.

"After you Naruto-kun," Lee said, gesturing towards a doorway at the opposite end of the chamber in a grandiose fashion. Naruto couldn't be sure but there might have been something mocking about it. Lee was just downright weird at times.

The halls and corridors honeycombing throughout the stronghold were bland and lifeless. Naruto and Lee had been running through them for some time and had yet to run into a patrol of any sort, Zetsus or resurrected ninja. Maybe they could have taken their squads with them after all…

Suddenly six white Zetsus burst from the ground and walls just ahead of them, their bodies changing so as to more easily grab and drain them of their chakra. Lee reflexively stopped in his tracks but Naruto burst ahead, wind chakra wrapping around his gauntlets and extending by almost two feet. Three of the Zetsu split off and headed for Lee while the other three met Naruto head on. The first one to get within reach received a foot in the throat and it flew off into the wall. The second one attempted to grab his left arm but was neatly skewered by a chakra blade. Almost lazily Naruto dragged the blade up through its chest and out its head. The Zetsu neatly wilted down to the floor.

The third one had jumped into his guard as he was dealing with the second Zetsu and its teeth were mere centimeters from his throat. It was too close to dispatch with chakra blades so Naruto disengaged the blade on his right arm and grabbed by the head it before it could take a chunk out of his throat. He casually slammed it against the unforgiving stone wall once, twice, thrice before whipping chakra blades through its midsection. The first came charging back into the fray as the pieces of the third were hitting the floor, but Naruto calmly dispatched it with a second kick to the throat, this time with wind chakra. Naruto turned to check on Lee and saw the young man was sitting on a Zetsu body, smiling that smile of his again.

"You're so slow Naruto-kun," he said, smiling widely. Naruto just petulantly glared at him for a second and flicked him off. Lee merely laughed and stood up from his seat. And just at that moment the wall to their right suddenly exploded outwards, showering them with dust, stones, and licking flames.

Naruto looked at the new hole that was suddenly created in surprise. While he would never be an effective chakra sensor, all shinobi possessed the ability to sense chakra. Needless to say he held no talent there whatsoever but he was working on it, without the aid of either sage mode or Kyuubi, and he could sense people a decent bit away and chakra usage much better than simply seeking out people. He was surprised because given how close the attack was, he should have felt _something_. Logic dictated that there was something, natural or artificial, that seemed to either dampen or completely block off a shinobi's sensory abilities. Naruto took that as a good sign. It meant that they were definitely in the right place.

Before he could order otherwise Lee ran right through the hole, the sounds of your stereotypical last stand echoing around a large cavern coming from the hole were probably enough to galvanize Lee into action. Naruto however moved to a body in all the rubble, a Jounin from the Hidden Mist village from the looks of her. He could only find her torso and her left arm was torn raggedly. Her eyes were staring up at the ceiling sightlessly, and judging from the large scoop that was taken from her neck he could guess that she had activated a series of explosive tags or suicide seals to take out the Zetsus that had killed her. He heard movement at the hole as he bent down and closed her eyes with a hand. When he stood back up he saw a small group of Zetsus, many of them burnt from the blast. '_Leave the dead, aid the living,_' Naruto thought, the wind blades of his gauntlets extending to life as the first of the Zetsus rushed at him.

Omoi was having a bad day. He got hardly any sleep last night, one part being to blame the stupidly hot chick he took to bed with him last night and the other part was the fact that he spent the other half of the night worrying. And because he hadn't slept well, he forgot to restock his lollipop holder. By the time he and his team had entered the mountain stronghold, he had nothing to suck on, so now his sugar withdrawal was _killing_ him. To add to it, he and his team had to fight practically from the moment they set foot inside the mountain. They ran into an almost constant gauntlet of midsized groups of Zetsu that just wore on them until finally fatigue set in the squad members were being picked off one by one.

Then when there were only five of them left they entered into this midsized cavern only to be mobbed by at least a hundred of the things. The first three members of his team fell within seconds of each other. And finally the remaining member of his squad blew herself and a fair sized group up with some suicide seals on her body. It was with the near-mindless determination to save his sensei that kept his tired arms swinging his increasingly heavy katana. That stopped when the Zetsu he had just run through grabbed his blade in a tight grip, maniacal smile stretching its ugly face as two more Zetsu rushed at him, now defenseless. He closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable. _'I'm sorry Karui, Lord Killer Bee. I couldn't save you. Maybe I'll have an angel greeting me when I open my eyes again.'_

"Dainamikku Entorii!" Omoi's eyes shot open just in time to see an orange and green blur take out the two attacking Zetsus in one move, the force of the attack creating a large explosion of dust and stone. Once it all cleared Omoi saw his savior, Rock Lee, the beautiful green beast of Konoha. The blinding smile Lee gave him made him want to retch, probably because he wanted to see a beautiful, _female_ angel when he opened his eyes again. Not a man's ass in a skintight green leotard.

The Zetsus instantly recognized Rock Lee for what he was, many screeching in horror at the sheer sight of him. They instantly began to retreat, most melting into the ground but there were a few who foolishly attempted to get away on foot. Their demise isn't even worth noting. Almost. With a great cry Lee surged forward and landed in the midst of a group trying to melt into the floor at their greatest speed. However Lee never gave them the chance.

"Konoha Senpuu!" Lee cried out as he spun in a dizzying circle, his legs scything through the exposed necks of the Zetsu. Their heads flew into the air while their bodies, still partially submerged in the stone floor, slumped in place. Omoi watched as Lee moved on as he leaned against his sword, catching his breath and energy. He couldn't help but admire Lee in action against the Zetsu. It was like the young man had been specifically created to destroy the inhuman creations of Madara. They say that he was still incredibly effective against the Zetsus while they were being buffed by Yamato and that effectiveness increased exponentially once Yamato freed himself.

"Yo," said a new voice behind him and Omoi turned around to see Naruto, a smirk gracing his features. Omoi waved over at him, a small tired smirk of his own on his face. Without a word Naruto tossed him a small bag which Omoi lazily caught. His eyes lit up instantly when he saw what was inside; a couple lollipops and a few soldier pills. Omoi instantly took one of the lollipops, tore off the wrapper, and stuck it in his mouth and contentedly sucked on it for a few moments. Pure, sweet heaven. A chuckle from Naruto broke him out of his bliss and he gave him a questioning look.

"Your face," was all Naruto said, trying to contain his mirth from being too obvious. Omoi only shrugged, he didn't care as he had his sweet, sweet goddess back once more.

"Thanks," He said, before popping two of the soldier pills into his mouth and swallowing.

"The lollipops are from Samui and she says that you 'shouldn't worry so much' and those were my soldier pills, honestly don't know why they keep giving them to me," Naruto explained as Omoi stood back up, his chakra levels noticeably rising. At this point Lee walked back up to them, an easy smile on his face and his fist and legs where covered in the dark green effluence that served as the blood for the Zetsus.

"All done, Lee?" Naruto asked to which the plant-man killer could only nod.

"Hai, Naruto-kun. I tried to get as many as I could but most had been able to get away," Lee said, a frown burrowing its way onto his face.

"What happened to your squads?" Omoi asked. Naruto could only wince.

"We got overwhelmed almost as soon as we entered the mountain and half my squad fell before I repulsed them and then Lee and Temari's squad reinforced us and we forced the rest off," Naruto explained. Lee explained that his and Temari's squad had been caught by a wave of Zetsu, probably going to reinforce the group that was attacking Naruto's squad.

"So basically the two of you were the only ones with enough energy to keep going?" Omoi asked.

"Pretty much though it was a bit of a fight to convince the others that they would be more of a hindrance than help," Naruto answered to which Omoi nodded in agreement. He would have fought to go too if had had been in their position. Thank the Kami that he had been granted a squad of his own rather than being placed in one. After a few stretches to get his muscles primed again, he pulled his sword out of the ground and sheathed it on his back.

"Ready?" Naruto asked. Omoi nodded once and they were off once more into the bowels of the Mountain.

_GRASHKOOM! _One instant they were running through another vaguely unremarkable hallway and the next _something_ burst through one wall, colliding into Omoi who was running point, and bearing him into and through the opposing wall in a spectacular cloud of dust and stone. Having stood directly behind him in their little line Naruto chased after Omoi and his assailant without a second thought.

Once clear of the dust cloud Naruto saw that Omoi was pinned to the ground by something, though it was vaguely familiar. Maybe he would more easily recognize it if it were facing him. Its right arm, if it could be called that so absurdly deformed as it seemed like a club, was raised above Omoi's head, ready to fall and bash his brains across the stone floor. Naruto wasted no time. With a surge of chakra through his feet and legs, he burst forward in a gust of surprising speed, landing him right next to Omoi and his attacker.

Using the momentum from his surge, he lashed out with a kick that landed with crushing force into the attacker's side, forcing it airborne. It landed and rolled, sadly bleeding off much of the potentially damaging energy from the landing as possible. More surprisingly was that it picked itself up almost immediately. It looked like it hadn't even felt the attack and was grinning manically the entire time. Naruto's eyes narrowed once he saw the creature for who it was; Juugo, one of Sasuke's companions. He was clearly in his Killer mode, his evil demonic-like grin tearing his face in two, and his black eyes wide in an almost orgasmic ecstasy.

Omoi was just picking himself up when the sound of something hard hitting something soft echoed through the cavern, _'Always with the caves,'_ and a green blur came sailing through the dispersing dust cloud. It landed and like Juugo rolled towards them until Lee got his bearings and placed his feet underneath himself, skidding the rest of the way. Out of the dust cloud strolled Suigetsu, a large shit eating grin plastered on his face and a rather large and recognizable sword wrapped in bandages resting on a shoulder.

Omoi was facing Juugo, his eyes dark eyes never leaving the maniac. Lee was standing opposed to Suigetsu, a very non-youthful frown creasing his features. Naruto positioned himself so that he could quickly give aide to either of his companions, standing with either shoulder facing an enemy. For several tense seconds neither party moved, no one dared to move a muscle save to breathe when suddenly a purposefully loud foot fall echoed throughout the cavern. It almost made Naruto twitch violently with its suddenness, not that it was particularly loud but just so startlingly _there_. Ninja were supposed to be silent killers, even when they were blowing shit up.

It also caused Naruto to fully take in his surroundings; they were in an incredibly large cavern. The caverns that he had fought in previously were small compared to this one, large and spacious with large, fang shaped stalactites jutting from the roof. It was also dark, almost unnaturally so. It was the sort of darkness that pervaded your sight but did not hinder it; you could walk twenty feet from your original position and look back and not be able to tell the difference. And finally the floor was smooth, almost like polished marble, which only added to the creeping weirdness of the place.

All in all, a great place to suck a demon out of somebody.

Naruto tried to keep an eye out for whoever was taking their damn old time getting there, the echoes in the place distorting from which direction they were coming from. Finally a figured began to materialize out of the darkness, directly in front of Naruto. Naruto wondered for all of a minute who it could be. But the gait, the robes, the handle like protrusion on their right side, the _damn hair_. When Uchiha Sasuke finally entered into the light, Naruto's face was carefully kept blank.

"Naruto," Sasuke said, Itachi's eyes piercing through him.

"Sasuke," Naruto responded, his brilliant azure eyes conveying the emotion that his voice could not. Sasuke then threw something at him, a lazy underhanded pitch that had the object in a high arc before it slapped the ground at Naruto's feet. His breath caught in his throat and his body became impossibly tense, his eyes wide as he took in the arm that was lying at his feet. It was dark toned, despite it being pale and waxy like from loss of blood, with fingerless gloves identical to what Killer Bee wore. It had been torn off. Torn, not cut. Revulsion rose like bile in Naruto's throat at that small little fact, at the shoulder with a tattoo for iron just at the tear point.

'_It couldn't be…'_ Naruto's eyes snapped back up to Sasuke's impassive face. A little voice, barely heard through all of chaos and strife in his mind was telling him that he was on the verge of losing complete control. But something deeper and darker was telling him to fuck control**;** he had to hurt this _motherfucker_ just like he had hurt his friend.

"You're too late," Sasuke said, his face and voice impossibly empty.

For one single, endless second nothing happened.

"_GRAAAAH_!" Naruto's roar shook the cavern and both Lee and Omoi were pitched forward as the air was _blasted_ away from Naruto with violent ferocity as he subconsciously accessed Kyuubi's chakra. He had failed _again_. His angst and anger filled mind dictated only one possible action, only one direct path to making this all go away.

He charged Sasuke.

Sasuke was ready for it. His Mangekyou Sharingan was swirling rapidly as Naruto's fist was millimeters away from crushing it only to pass through it and carry his entire body along. He sailed through Sasuke in blinding speed, his mind too addled and confused to attempt to stop and crashed into the floor of the cavern with a sickening crunch. Sasuke immediate performed an about-face and charged toward Naruto's crash site, his blade shining in the darkness.

In the same instant that Sasuke turned around, Juugo launched himself at Omoi, his right arm shifting into an axe blade. Omoi had barely a second to whip out his blade and place it in a defensive position; it was a move that Killer Bee had drilled into his mind until it was etched into the core of his body. Omoi knew how strong people could be, hell he even had a light sparring session against A once. That didn't end well for him or his sword. He was used to being thrown around by Killer Bee and knew all the tricks to successfully defend himself from opponents who were obviously stronger than he. Or at least he thought he knew all the tricks.

Sparks flew when axe arm met sword and Omoi himself flew, surprised by the sheer monstrous strength behind the blow. His sword was still in one piece, so Juugo wasn't at A's level. Then there was no need to grab his junk and run…yet. He righted himself and landed on his feet only to defend himself from another attack. This time Juugo's left arm struck and it was shaped like a spiked club but instead of outright blocking it Omoi parried it, letting it slide off his sword and giving him an opening to shove his foot into Juugo's torso. He might as well have been kicking a mountain. Still he wasn't deterred.

It was quickly apparent to Omoi that of the two, he was the more agile as he ducked and dodged where he could and parried the rest. But he was starting to tire, so he knew he had to start upping the ante if he wanted to survive. The chance to strike finally presented itself when Juugo swung his club arm horizontally. Omoi rolled under the blow and directly into Juugo's guard. "Appa-suraisu!" he cried out, his blade crackling with lightning chakra as he swung it upwards from a crouching position.

Impossibly Juugo morphed his right arm into a shield and defended himself from the attack. However the shield did Juugo little good as the lightning chakra coursing through the sword increased its penetrating power exponentially. Dark blood gushed from Juugo's arm as the sword cut its way through his shield until it hit bone, stopping its progress altogether which surprised Omoi greatly. Juugo took advantage of Omoi's surprise and swung his wounded arm with the blade still imbedded and with Omoi still holding on to said sword. For the second time that day Omoi went flying and his sword not too far behind but out of his grasp.

Such was the strength of Juugo's arm that Omoi was sent crashing into the ceiling above them, Omoi having barely enough time to contort himself in the air so that he didn't end up impaled on a stalactite. Juugo's screams, whether in agony or ecstasy he couldn't tell, echoed oddly around Omoi as he shook his head to stop the ringing, clinging to the nearest stalactite with both feet and a hand. Suddenly there was a whooshing sound and he peeked around his stalactite to see a beam of solid chakra shooting up at him from the ground.

Omoi barely jumped away before the attack reduced his cover to dust and rubble. And he didn't sit still after that, which probably saved his life as Juugo had morphed his left arm from a club to a sort of canon that shoots out streams of highly dense chakra and he was sending those streams of chakra out at Omoi like they were party favors. Omoi moved quickly through the upside down forest of stalactites, sometimes using only one hand to propel himself forward.

"Screw this," he said and began flashing through hand seals. Once the last hand seal was formed, lightning began to crackle around him. He sucked in a breath before leaping onto another stalactite, landing on it so that he had to lean forward to face the ceiling. He then leaned back, now upside down with burning energy sparking around him and with Juugo in his sights. The crazed ninja was lining up a cannon arm when Omoi aimed his pointer and middle fingers of his right hand at Juugo, his thumb perpendicular to his fingers so as to act as a sight. His cry of "Raiton: Rakurai no jutsu!" was almost lost within the caterwaul of the thick lightning bolt as it left his fingers and struck Juugo in the same instant.

As Omoi dropped to the ground, he remained wary. The attack took him forever to learn, was one of the more powerful attacks in his arsenal, and it was a bitch to control. For the one clear fraction of a second that he saw of the attack hit, it looked like it struck the ground just in front of Juugo's feet but then the attack exploded and it kicked up a huge cloud of dust. _'This place sure is dusty'_ he thought moving to the edge of the cloud, wondering what he should do. He felt naked without his sword, the loss of its comforting weight making him feel unduly tense.

It was probably this tenseness that saved his life. He noted it at the last second, a glinting in the dust and his instincts screamed a furious warning that he obeyed without hesitation. The air whistled around his beloved sword's blade as it passed through the space of air that his head occupied a nanosecond before, followed closely by Juugo, his unnaturally dark blood flowing from dozens of tiny cuts. Despite the obvious wounds, however, Juugo was still wearing his disturbing grin and began screaming almost incoherently as he swung Omoi's sword around wildly.

Omoi dodged the attacks almost as wildly, daring to not even defend himself with a kunai against the superior strength of his opponent. Omoi, unlike his adversary, was annoyed. Here was this _monkey_ whipping his own sword at him with nary a single skill in the art of kenjutsu to call upon. His footwork, the way he held the sword, the gaps in his defenses that left Juugo open miles wide whenever he swung the katana, these all annoyed Omoi as a serious swordsman.

It was thankfully one of those miles-wide openings that let Omoi reclaim his beloved. Juugo was going for a powerful over head chop that, if Omoi had stood still, would have cloven him in two from head to knaves. Only Omoi hadn't stayed still. Once Juugo reached as far back as he would go and started to swing down, Omoi pivoted on his right foot, bring him right inside Juugo's guard and right under his sword arm. Omoi then grabbed Juugo at the wrist with one hand and latched onto the handle of his sword with the other and twisted.

As Juugo's arm was already swinging down and with it carried a lot of the crazed man's momentum behind it. Omoi added his own to it as opposed to stopping it altogether, sending the larger man into the air for once. Juugo landed on his back a few feet away, his left hand bereft of Omoi's blade and twisted at an odd angle. Juugo quickly rose to his feet, his manic grin no longer present. In its place was grimace of anger like a petulant child having his favorite toy taken away by an annoyed parent. He would have none of that**!** Omoi's eyes bugged out as Juugo raised both of his arms, now morphed into twin cannons and his shoulders were also lined with smaller canons.

With a screech Juugo fired all canons at once, the individual beams combining into one large beam headed straight at Omoi. Omoi was too close to the attack to successfully dodge and he knew it. Instead he flew through a series of one handed seals while lifting his blade above his head. With a bright flash of light and charged chakra, Omoi swung his sword down, meeting Juugo's attack head on. The resulting explosion shook the cavern, nearly knocking Juugo off his feet and kicking yet another could of smoke and dust into the air. Juugo watched the cloud expectantly for one, two, three moments until finally his frown slowly turned upside down and he began a soft chuckle. It grew, bubbling forth from his chest until it was a loud, raucous, screeching laugh.

"He's dead! He's dead!" Juugo screamed, his mirth echoing throughout the caverns menacingly. His mirth ended when _something_, almost literally a small bolt of lightning, struck Juugo high in the chest, spinning and knocking him down. Juugo quickly rose again, his face a model of hate and anger. A hole the size of a fist had been bored through his left shoulder, still smoking even as Juugo's advanced healing closed it. Juugo barely got to his feet as Omoi came catapulting from the dust cloud, his sword held over his head and clenched in both heads, crackling with lightning chakra.

"Kumo-ryu: Tsuiraku Kire!" Omoi yelled as he brought his blade down, to spectacular effect. The lightning surrounding his sword leapt forward toward Juugo, forcing the large man to dodge to the side as the attack cut a furrow in the floor half a foot deep and eight feet long.

"WHY AREN'T YOU DEAD?" Juugo screamed as he formed his arm canons, firing off blast after blast after blast at his elusive target. Omoi once again began an elaborate dance of dodging and weaving, annoyed that despite appearances Juugo was a truly wise fighter. He was keeping a close-range opponent with the capability of slicing you into pieces at distance. One of Juugo's chakra attacks came a little too close for Omoi to dodge or weave to avoid, so he charged his sword with lightning chakra and swatted the attack away. The energies of the lightning chakra repulsed the chakra beam and deflected it off at an angle away from Omoi.

In seeing an attack deflected Juugo's anger deepened for a moment. But then he blinked and an idea entered his noggin, an idea that forced the return of his manic grin. Naturally, seeing the grin return so suddenly had Omoi paling. Juugo ceased firing his arm canons and began to change the shape of canons. Before they were just large barrels, shaped for a large release of explosive chakra that would kill a normal person in a single blast but now they were different. Now both arm cannons were comprised of a dozen small barrels each and they were both pointed at Omoi.

"Oh crap," Omoi groaned. With a renewed battle cry, Juugo let loose his newly formed cannons, streams of tiny chakra bullets shooting towards Omoi. With this new relentless attack, all of Omoi's agility, experience, and luck were brought to bear as he dodged, ducked, dipped, dived, and dodged around. The ones Omoi couldn't avoid he deflected much like he had before, trying to angle them back at Juugo but to little effect.

Omoi was getting tired, fast. Having already fought and lost his entire squad earlier, he was physically exhausted, regardless of the renewed chakra from the soldier pills he got from Naruto. He attempted to duck behind a large column for cover and a breather but that idea was scratched when the column was reduced to pebbles in a matter of moments. Eventually it was his legs that betrayed him. All of the constant moving, the dodging and weaving, had reduced his legs to puddles of jelly and all it took was for his left leg to give out underneath him.

In that instant, Omoi was peppered by tiny, stinging explosions, painful enough to make him cry out in pain and stumble. This naturally elicited a delighted grin from Juugo and he morphed his right arm back into a regular cannon, firing off a blast at the unbalanced Omoi. Whether by blind luck or bad eyesight, Juugo blast just missed striking Omoi but it did hit the floor right at his feet, sending him into the air. Juugo let loose a second blast while Omoi was still airborne and as it seared through the air towards Omoi, the young man took a deep breath, shoved aside all the pain and aches that he had accumulated and recalled his father's favorite saying whenever he had to face his irate wife.

"_Time to nut up or shut up."_ He coursed lightning chakra through his sword once again as his left hand sped through a familiar set of one handed seals and as the attack neared he grasped the hilt of his blade in both hands and swings crying, "Kumo-ryu: Raijin no Kiritateru!" a crescent slice of pure electricity leapt from his blade and met Juugo's blast in a crackle of energy. For a sheer, still moment, the two attacks fought one another before exploding in a spectacular light, sending both combatants rolling.

Juugo picked himself up with a low snarl, his teeth gritting and grinding in anger. But his madness was slipping away, and the lines of his curse slowly retreated across his face, his right eye returning to its normal white and golden colors. Omoi was leaning against his sword for support, trying to catch his breath and ease the pain everywhere in his body. _'I don't think I can do that again…'_ Omoi thought wearily, as he wiped sweat from his eyes.

Juugo then walks over, more than half of his face having returned to normal and a deep frown gracing his features. The man's right arm was normal, if a little emaciated looking, while his left was changed into a weird axe/hammer hybrid and he took a fighting pose. Omoi studied him for a moment before giving a tired smile and standing up straight, if a little unsteady. He gave a salute with his blade to Juugo and assumed his own fighting stance. For a moment neither moved, both trying to build up the necessary strength to give that final, lethal blow. But just as they were ready, just as their muscles tensed to strike they were suddenly and completely engulfed in a formless bright light.

And then they knew nothing else.

The sounds of two fervent battles echoed throughout the vast cavern, but neither Lee nor Suigetsu seemed entirely too concerned. They were both extremely accomplished shinobi and knew not to concern themselves with their companions as they were also extremely accomplished shinobi. So instead they took the time to size each other up. It was during this nonverbal pissing contest that Suigetsu noticed a very intent look from Lee, almost uncharacteristic from the man if not for its inherent intensity.

"What the hell are you looking at me like that for?" Suigetsu asked from across the way, a sneer stretching his face. "Don't tell me that you find me sexy, I was under the assumption that fags had a better fashion sense."

"Have we met before?" Lee asked, seemingly unperturbed by Suigetsu's barb. Suigetsu on the other hand exploded.

"We fought four times already, ass-hat!" he yelled, a vein visibly pulsing on his temple. Lee's face adopts a confused look.

"I'm sure I would have remembered fighting someone four times," Lee responded.

"That's because you're a fucking idiot!" Suigetsu screeched. At this point he was close to throwing a temper tantrum, how many fucking idiots must he wade through to find a decent opponent? That's when Lee finally notices Samehada; white bandages covering the entirety of the sword save for the handle.

"I've seen that sword before," he said, pointing at Samehada. Suigetsu cocked an eyebrow upwards at that, before a slow, vicious smile spread across his face.

"You should. It once belonged to the greatest of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, Hoshigaki Kisame!" Suigetsu trilled triumphantly.

There was several second of tense silence before Lee responded. "Who?"

Suigetsu said several naughty words. Very loudly. The vein on his temple was now dangerously close to popping. After growling several more, incoherent curses, he took a deep breath, attempting to calm his soaring blood pressure.

"It was used," he began, growling out each syllable between clenched teeth, "By Killer Bee, you numb skull." It took Lee a moment to absorb this information before he made an affirmative "That's right!" and slapping a fist into an open palm. Suigetsu's lowered his head into two waiting hands, groaning. So many idiots, so little time. Lee suddenly got serious, his dull black eyes actually narrowing at Suigetsu.

"So, you stole the sword from Killer Bee," he said, to which Suigetsu scoffed.

"Please, once we beat him senseless, Samehada was fair game," Suigetsu said.

"Then I'll just have to give him the sword back once we get him back," Lee declared. Suigetsu just bark out a single laugh.

"Good luck with that, ass-hat!" he yelled as he suddenly leapt forward, Samehada clasped in both hands and raised to deal a strike, from left shoulder to right thigh. Lee reacted instantly, whirling around under the slash and brought the heel of his right foot up and around, smashing it into Suigetsu's jaw with vicious power. Almost unexpectedly, Suigetsu's head exploded into a fine mist of water around Lee's foot. However, instead of stopping, Suigetsu's body kept moving, reversing the momentum of Samehada and swung at Lee again. Lee was caught off guard for a moment but he was able to leap out of the way just in time.

As Suigetsu's head began to reform, Lee looked down at his right arm, the bandages that had been covering it were all shredded and falling off. By the time he finished removing the remaining ones; Suigetsu had fully grown his head back and was glaring sharp and pointy daggers at Lee.

"Do you have any idea how much that stings?" he asked to Lee's confused glance. Maybe it was Lee's nonchalant shrug or maybe Suigetsu was just anxious to kick the fight off again but no matter the reason he leapt at Lee again, swinging Samehada with all of his skill and might. What followed was an odd game of cat and mouse where neither party could harm the other. Suigetsu would swing and swing but never would he get a hit in on Lee who was far too agile for a large and heavy weapon like Samehada.

There was also the fact that because Lee had underdeveloped chakra coils which gave him something of an advantage over Samehada's chakra absorption capabilities. Because he couldn't produce chakra like a regular shinobi and relied on his physical abilities, there was almost nothing for Samehada to suck from him. Suigetsu wasn't without his own advantages either. Despite that Lee was much more agile than Suigetsu; he could get off more shots at the man because he could manipulate his body like water. Lee's attacks were having no effect whatsoever. And so they were deadlocked.

"Screw this!" Suigetsu said, finally tired of the stalemate that they were in and liquefied his body instantly. His upper torso still remained, his left arm clutching Samehada, but it had become almost completely translucent as a large pool of water began to well up around Lee. Suddenly a tendril of water shot out towards Lee and only his instincts and reflexes saved him. As he dodged, the entire pool around him becomes active and Lee draws upon every experience, every skill to survive, but still it was all for naught.

As he sidestepped one attack, a foot landed in a still puddle of water and he knew he was trapped. The instant his foot landed in the puddle, it leapt up his leg and suddenly became heavy, like a hand was grabbing him around the ankle. Other portions of the water that composed Suigetsu began to converge on Lee, engulfing him entirely in a prison of heavy water.

"How do you like that, bitch?" Suigetsu taunted as he slid up to Lee. Lee glared for a moment then he closed his eyes and slowly crossed his arms. By the time Suigetsu realized what he was doing, it was too late. In a violent burst of chakra, the prison of water exploded outward and Suigetsu was sent flying.

"Hachimon: Seimon, released," Lee said before he became a literal blur, becoming visible again when he forced his fist into Suigetsu's gut.

_'What the fuck?'_ Suigetsu thought in pain when the hit landed. Seeing the expression on his opponent's face seemed to bolster Lee as the next series of strikes literally had Suigetsu crying out in pain.

"Fuck you!" Suigetsu screamed as he swung Samehada at Lee. Lee, being Lee, dodged the attack handily but not before Samehada sucked the excessive amounts of chakra from Lee's body leaving him dazed and confused. That was immediately cleared up by Suigetsu's fist as it crashed into Lee's face. Lee flew through the air and landed in a heap on the ground. Suigetsu slowly circled around, his body is still a mostly formless pool of water, as Lee tries to pick himself up.

"Guh!" Lee grunts as his leg gives out from under him and his breathing is heavy. The stress of opening the life gate was already wearing him down and like the predator that he is, Suigetsu moved in for the kill. He swung Samehada down, his eyes gleaming in vicious victory. With a cry of both determination and pain, Lee rolled out of the way just in time. However the power of the attack shook the ground and created a small crater, sending Lee flying. Suigetsu immediately turned and pursued his quarry, not wanting this chance to slip past him. Just as Suigetsu was about to strike again, Lee sucked in a breath, knowing that he would be in a world of hurt later.

"Hachimon: Keimon, release!" He cried out and a second, much larger explosion of chakra barreled into Suigetsu, pushing him back. Once the gale force winds died down enough, Suigetsu opened his eyes and saw the geyser of chakra that had become Rock Lee. Suigetsu attempted to shield himself with Samehada but Lee in this form was just too fast. Hepractically appeared from thin air in front of Suigetsu before Samehada could even be brought around.

"Yuuarikoushin!" Lee cried out as he thrust both of his legs into Suigetsu. For a moment Suigetsu couldn't breathe but that wasn't the weirdest thing. When Lee's legs hit, the air shimmered around them for that same instant, and yet Suigetsu felt almost nothing. He should have waited one second more. In a sudden clash of sound and light, Suigetsu was thrown backwards, multiple explosions blossoming all around him and in him. Suigetsu lands with a loud plopping sound, his body partially liquefied but neither was it reforming at his command.

"What the fuck was that?" Suigetsu demanded, bubbles of reddish water slipping past his lips. His body was also steaming; the heat of the explosions causing the temperature of water that comprises his body to rise significantly. Surprisingly he must have hit Lee with Samehada when he was thrown back by the attack as the man was no longer exuding a greenish aura, but his skin was now a redder color, almost brown. As Suigetsu grasped Samehada again he felt of flood of rejuvenating chakra course through him.

"Yuuarikoushin is not a single kick, but a large number of kicks so fast that the sudden friction they create in the air creates explosions on or near the target," Lee said, unconsciously favoring his left leg over his right and he was breathing heavily. If he was nearly worn out from releasing the third gate, he must be near death, Suigetsu figured.

"That's fucking impossible," Suigetsu gripped as he finally pulled himself together. Lee merely shrugged at him, too tired to say anything. Without another word Suigetsu took a deep breath and suddenly the water of his body expanded, some water even began to well up from the ground all around Lee. It was even beginning to shimmer a chakra blue, casting those odd water reflections all around them. Lee took his own deep breath, just like before the deep plunge.

"Hachimon: Kyuumon, Release!" He cried out, the column of chakra that he called forth crashed into the ceiling of the cavern shaking loose stalactites and boulders alike. Just as they began to charge, a bright light distracted them both and the last thing Lee heard from that point was Suigetsu's "The hell!"

Everything after that was formless and blank.

**Author's notes:**

**so a cliffhanger. how badly do you people hate me? :P do you hate me enough to let me continue writing it? parts of this just flowed from my mind and other parts were like pulling teeth but I hope that you all enjoyed it. Many thanks to Tellemicus for be an awesome Beta and an all around awesome guy. please review, constructive criticism sustains my very being, praise increases my self esteem as a writer, and flamers can go and off themselves.**

**translations:**

**Kumo-ryu: appa-suraisu: cloud style: upwards slash**

**Raiton: Rakurai no jutsu: Thunderbolt technique**

**Kumo-ryu: tsuiraku kire: cloud style: falling slice**

**Raiton: Raijin no Kiritateru: Slash of the Thunder Lord**

**Seimon: life gate**

**Keimon: view gate**

**Kyoumon: wonder gate**

**yuuarikoushin: Evening ant march)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Right, here you all are, chapter 3 is up and running! I want you all to know that this almost was chapter 2 instead. my laptop's hard drive died on me the day AFTER I posted the second chapter, so be thankful that I didnt have to rewrite the entire thing from scratch. my hard drive failing was only part of the reason why this is a bit later than usual. I had to wait two weeks for a new hard drive, but aside from that there was a lot of personal shit happening in my family plus several money issues which caused a slight depression for me. **

**but alas you did not come here to hear my sob story, you came to read my story so please, sit back, relax, and enjoy.  
**

**BROKRUUSH! **

An immense impact reverberated around the large cavern, kicking up a large dust cloud. After a few tense seconds, Uzumaki Naruto stumbles out of the dust and smoke. There was blood almost freely seeping down over his right eye and his right arm was hanging uselessly at his side, and at an odd angle to boot. After coughing up a few teeth, Naruto took stock of his suddenly dire situation. The right side of his upper body was all but crushed. And while the Kyuubi was doing its thing to survive (in other words healing him), it had a lot to go through, so everything _hurt_. But the one good thing about the pain was that it knocked everything else out of his head, clearing it of all other emotions.

This was good because it allowed his instincts to notice the slight sound behind him, triggering his adrenaline fueled reflexes. Ducking and rolling under a slash that would have freed his head from his shoulders, he came back up to his feet to find Sasuke trying to shove a sharp, pointy thing down his throat. Twitching his head to the side, Naruto lashed out with a kick, trying to catch Sasuke in his side. Sasuke, however, caught the kick with his free hand. The iron grip told Naruto that he wouldn't get away very easily.

Sasuke twisted his sword around and pumped his blade with lightning chakra. Managing to flip around, Naruto moved with the swing. He ended up with his head down and his left hand braced on the ground to stabilize himself. Because of the extreme angles, Sasuke's sword just barely nicked Naruto's throat, a small line of blood sliding up along his jaw line. Continuing with his earlier movement and maintaining his momentum, Naruto snapped his free leg up in scything kick, his knee slamming into Sasuke's shoulder and knocked him off balance.

Still using his kick's momentum, Naruto was able to get his feet back underneath him. And not a second too late, he was quickly forced to dodge a spear of lightning. From no less than five feet away, Sasuke shot a Chidori Eisou. When Naruto skipped to the side, he swung his arm after him. Instead of dodging again, Naruto brought up his left arm with wind chakra gently circling around the gauntlet. The Chidori Eisou sputtered out of existence once it came into contact with the wind chakra. Sasuke narrowed his eyes as he quickly ran through a short series of hand seals.

"Katon: Housenka no Jutsu!" he called out. Several midsized fireballs flew out of his mouth straight at Naruto. Naruto dodged and jumped out of the way of most of them. But the last two were too close together for him to dodge completely as he was still in midair. He twisted his body to the left so that the closer of the two fireballs would bypass him as he kicked out with his right leg. The fireball exploded on contact with his foot. But because of the positioning of his body and that he had gathered regular chakra in a protective shell around his leg, he got off with only his pant leg on fire.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" Sasuke called out just as Naruto landed on his feet. A giant golden red fireball rushed at Naruto, leaving the blonde with very little room to dodge.

"Fuck," he sputtered as he threw his body to the side as the fireball hit the ground. A roaring explosion filled Sasuke's ears as blistering hot air whips his Akatsuki cloak around behind him. Once the explosion subsides, Sasuke walked over not to the impact site but where Naruto had landed, his body a broken lump on the ground.

"That was simply pathetic, Naruto," Sasuke commented as he stood over Naruto's slightly smoldering body, Itachi's Sharingan were spinning slowly.

"As pathetic as this?" Naruto asked from behind Sasuke and suddenly a wind blade erupted from Sasuke's chest. Sasuke lurches forward, blood gushing from his mouth. He stayed on his feet but his head was bowed, his bangs overshadowing his eyes. Naruto,, from his position behind him, wasn't in any better shape. He was panting heavily from all of the exertion he did while dodging around Sasuke's attacks and his right arm was still dangling uselessly at his side. The blood flow over his right eye had all but ceased, allowing him to tentatively open his right eye to regard Sasuke.

"Well?" he pressed. Sasuke then slowly straightened up, showing his rapidly spinning Sharingan to Naruto.

"Yes," he answers only to abruptly break down into a flock of ravens. Naruto's eyes widen in surprise as he quickly turns around. But he was too late; cold steel suddenly pierced his abdominal muscles. Sasuke stood at the end of the sword in his gut, a small smirk gracing his features.

"Nice try—" he began. But in a small puff of white smoke, Naruto's astonished and mortally wounded form disappeared, only to be replaced by a large rock from the floor. It was then Sasuke's turn to react defensively as he spun around, quick as a flash, and brought his sword up just in time to catch a wind blade from Naruto's left gauntlet. Due to the superior craftsmanship of his blade, it stopped the wind blade where it was. But he wasn't prepared for Naruto's right fist to plow into his jaw.

Sasuke stumbled back a few steps, partially stunned from the fierce strike but still managed to block the follow-up heel kick aimed for his midsection. And suddenly their positions were reversed, Naruto was throwing punch after kick at Sasuke and the only thing Sasuke could do was retreat and defense. Which was a chore in and of itself because the replacement rock was still attached to his blade and it was throwing off his balance and power, making otherwise picture perfect blocks and parries ineffectual.

Sasuke finally had enough after a series of punches had gotten through his defenses, leaving him breathless and pushing bile back down his throat. Putting a decent amount of power into his legs, Sasuke leapt backwards, spinning in the air once and flicking his blade at Naruto. This caused the rock on the blade to slide off and fly towards Naruto at ballistic speeds. Naruto paused long enough in his pursuit to kick the rock out of the air, reducing it into dust the moment it contacted his foot. This pause, however, was enough for Sasuke to go through a short number of hand seals and activate Chidori.

"Raiton: Chidori Senbon!" he called out, raising his Chidori in the air and showering Naruto's position with dozens of lightning needles.

"Fuuton: Teikiatsu no Jutsu!" the blonde yelled after flashing through his own hand seals. Then, as he exhaled like a child blowing out the candles on a birthday cake, a roaring wall of wind rises up and surrounds him just as the lightning needles reach him. The needles fizzle out of existence like all of Sasuke's other lightning attacks. But as the cyclone dies down, it kicked up a dense wall of dust that hung in the air in front of Sasuke. Sasuke stood just a few feet away from the curtain of dust, waiting for Naruto to come charging out. As expected the thunder of charging feet had Sasuke leaping backwards as a small army of shadow clones come racing out of the dust cloud. Just before they reach him, Sasuke closes his left eye and sets his right Sharingan spinning.

"Amaterasu!" he growled, black flames engulfing the center of the clones' formation. While the majority of the clones were wiped out from the attack, Naruto had them spread out far enough that there were a few that survived the attack. These clones closed in on Sasuke, wind chakra blades extended and they were swinging with deadly skill. To say that Sasuke had to stay mobile to survive was an understatement; it was more accurate that he had to stay _airborne_ in order to survive, that was how relentless those clones were.

However, he wasn't without his own fangs. Whenever he could keep the ground under his feet for more than a few seconds, he would take out at least one clone. But after several minutes of fighting, Sasuke was forced to the conclusion that Naruto was quietly making more clones for every one that was destroyed. Having enough of this game, Sasuke set his feet on the ground and started focusing his Sharingan. The nearest clone rushed in for a strike. But unlike previously where Naruto had gone through Sasuke, the clone was abruptly stopped by a large rib of condensed chakra that was forming from out of Sasuke's side.

The full creation of Sasuke's Susano'o ability was fast and destructive. Its sudden growth had surprised the Naruto clones long enough for Sasuke to make several exaggerated sweeps of his arms, Susano'o destroying the remaining shadow clones surrounding him in a show of mimicry. Naruto narrowed his eyes at Sasuke's defensive ability and created a fresh batch of shadow clones. However, instead of merely charging in towards Sasuke, the clones, including Naruto, closed their eyes for a brief second and when they opened their eyes they all sported the same golden, rectangular eyes of the toads.

"Rasen Chou Tarengan!" the clones all cried as they charged at Sasuke. As they ran, motes of blue light formed in their hands which grew to preposterous sizes. Sasuke clenched his teeth and again swung his arms, having Susano'o smash the invading army of clones once more. He was only half successful. With the clones enhanced by nature energy, they were _that_ much more agile and powerful, making them _that_ much harder to disperse. Sasuke had scored a number of hits, but for every clone he destroyed, another would get through his defenses and strike Susano'o.

While the supped up Rasengans weren't able to break through Susano'o, they were powerful enough to create a feedback for Sasuke, manifesting as a headache quickly growing in its ferocity. Then he heard the sound, a high pitched whirring sound that grated on his already frayed nerves. He turned towards its source and saw that he was nearly too late.

"Fuuton: Rasenshuriken!" Naruto yelled, swinging his arm forward and releasing the spinning discus of destruction. Sasuke was barely able to raise the Susano'o's bow-shield into a defensive posture before the attack hit him head on. If Sasuke thought the Sage mode-enhanced Rasengans were bad, then he wasn't prepared for the Rasenshuriken. It was like his entire brain was vibrating inside his skull. He fought to keep control over Susano'o as the pain mounted inside his head.

But then the Rasenshuriken expanded. When Naruto threw it, the Rasenshuriken was only two to two-and-a-half meters across. But when it suddenly expanded, it increased in size to five meters across. And it broke through Susano'o's shield. Once it shattered Susano'o's shield, it continued onto the chakra construct like there was never an obstacle in its path before. Sasuke let out an agonizing scream as the Rasenshuriken tore through his defense, blood beginning to flow from his nose. Then, without warning, the two high-powered abilities erupted at the same time, kicking up a high wind that knocked Naruto flat on his ass.

"Chidori Eisou!" Sasuke shouted from some distance away just as Naruto was picking himself up. He dodged to the side as a lance of pure lightning energy speared its way through where he was a mere moment ago. Sasuke then came charging out of the smoke cover, the left side of his face bloody and his lips peeled back in an angry snarl. His sword flashed forward, a cascade of lightning as it collided with Naruto's left gauntlet.

Naruto pushes the blade aside and strikes with his right elbow, aiming for Sasuke's throat. Sasuke's free hand catches the elbow as he drives a knee into Naruto's gut. Despite the air being forced out of his lungs, Naruto managed a perfect head-butt into Sasuke's nose ridge, breaking the sensitive cartilage. As Sasuke stumbled back, Naruto lashed out with his right foot, aiming for Sasuke's abdomen. But Sasuke saw it coming and attempted to jump further back. He avoids the initial physical attack but then suddenly it felt like a metal pole was driven into his ribs, two of them snapping out right. Sasuke sailed for a few feet before landing roughly on his back, coughing flecks of blood as he tried to pick himself up.

"You don't look so good, Sasuke," Naruto said, who was also looking only slightly winded from all the fighting. Not believing in defeat, Sasuke snarled in rage and leapt to his feet, ignoring the agony in his chest as best he could, with a Chidori igniting in his fist as he once again rushed towards Naruto. Naruto said nothing, simply creating a Rasengan and rushed towards his friend. As they raced toward one another, Sasuke's mind raced, thinking what he could do to change things into his favor when an idea hit him. It was such a painfully stupid idea. It was something that Madara would probably beat him senseless for doing, once Sasuke regained his senses anyway. But he figured that the benefits outweighed the costs and risks so he did it anyway.

Poor, foolish little Sasuke.

"Kamui!"

_Flashback two years ago_

Sasuke sat on a fallen log in some nondescript forest that Madara had chosen for his training. His elder sat across from him, his new white and grey mask covering his face, revealing both eyes instead of only his right. Sasuke was curious about how Madara had come into possession of a Rinnegan, obviously the only one available was from Nagato and he heard that he had died because of his battle with Naruto. Sasuke couldn't deny that having both an eternal Mangekyou and a rinnegan would certainly not hurt the man's chances of success, but why throw away a good eye? Unless that eye wasn't good anymore, in which cases why wasn't it good anymore? Sasuke pushed those thought from his mind, focusing on his elder who had called him here.

The elder Uchiha sat observing their surroundings for a few moments, seemingly at peace with everything. Sasuke felt that this was a rather perverse sort of peace. The man wanted to control everything worth controlling by forcing an illusion on all living and thinking things, thus bending them to his will. Sasuke didn't care though, so long as his vengeance as appeased then Madara could do what ever he wanted.

"Now, Sasuke," Madara began, making sure he has Sasuke's attention. "Before we begin your training, there are two things I need to explain first." He was silent for a moment, gauging Sasuke's response. Sasuke neither moved nor spoke, so Madara continued on. "The first thing is training, naturally. You need to get used to Itachi's eyes and you have been recovering from the surgery for a decent amount of time, so you may be out of touch with all of your current skills." Sasuke nodded to this. It was only logical that he should get back up to par with his previous abilities before going beyond them.

"The second thing I need to explain is that I will be training you in two abilities that only Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan like ours are capable of," Madara said.

"And those two abilities are?" Sasuke asked.

"Jikukan Ido and Kamui," Madara answered, almost reverently. Sasuke merely raised one eyebrow in question. Was he supposed to be impressed by their names? Madara chuckled and went on, "Jikukan Ido is my ability to phase through objects and people and is relatively easy to learn and master." Madara illustrated this ability by sweeping his hand through a tree.

"And Kamui?" Sasuke pressed.

"Kamui is the ability to create an inter-dimensional wormhole through which you can suck in objects and people, even yourself, to a small pocket dimension of your own creation," Madara explained. Sasuke blinked for a moment before his face morphed into a 'what the fuck?' expression. "Yep, I felt that exact same way when I discovered their potential," Madara said, chuckling at Sasuke's expression.

"Why are you explaining them to me now, why not wait until you actually begin teaching me?" Sasuke asked. Madara nodded at the question like he was expecting it.

"I am telling you about these two abilities because I want to make it extremely clear, right now. They are incredibly powerful but unless you can express the most absolute perfect control over them, you _will_ die," Madara said, his entire demeanor deadly serious. "I nearly killed myself several times in learning these techniques," Madara continued. "The only times when you may attempt them are when I am present. And you are not to use them in battle until I tell you otherwise. Clear?"

Sasuke nodded that he understood but he still had to ask, "Why?"

"Why? Because do you want to fall through the world?" Madara posed back at Sasuke. Sasuke blinked.

"Is that bad?"

"Yep," Madara answered while standing up from his log. He made a motion with his hand, expressing his desire to see Sasuke stand up as well. Sasuke stood as well as Madara walked several paces away from him. Suddenly the man turned around and declared, "For now, no more questions. It is time to spar, little Sasuke-chan." The man then immediately leapt back towards Sasuke, his fist cocked back for a punch.

_End Flashback_

As Sasuke initiated Kamui, he forgot one minor medical fact about shinobi and concussions. Concussions have this tendency to mess with people's heads. Sometimes causing outright short-term memory loss of the events leading up to the concussion or worse. But for shinobi, the effect is compounded. Concussions adversely affect the control the shinobi exerts over their chakra, often times causing high maintenance techniques, like a genjutsu for example, to go haywire and completely out of the user's control in some cases.

When the wormhole appeared, Naruto was all but two meters away. He had just started to thrust his right arm, containing his Rasengan, forward. Sasuke focused on Naruto's hand, trying to entirely neutralize the threat of his Rasengan. Everything had started off swimmingly. The hole had formed and was spinning in accordance with his wishes but then a spike of pain slammed into him from behind his eyes. He reacted reflexively, bringing one hand up to his eyes. Before he consciously realized it, his chakra had gone through a wild shift in that split second.

Naturally, this is when shit hit the fan.

The first thing he noticed was that the wormhole changed colors; the holes had always been black. Madara said that this was because they were also sucking in the light around the target. But this hole went from black to white instantaneously. Sasuke had very little time to guess what exactly _that_ signified, for in the next instant white arcs of energy that _looked_ like electricity (but he knew deep down that they weren't) suddenly leapt from the now white void.

For a few, brief seconds, these arcs of energy leapt to and fro, sparking at both Sasuke and Naruto and just the air in general. But then, as one, they all struck Naruto, most of them latching onto his Rasengan. But others were attaching themselves to various parts of his body. And that's when Sasuke felt the wind. It started softly, like a tickling summer's breeze but it quickly grew stronger until it was equal in power to a hurricane. The wind, Sasuke noticed, was also coming from behind him, meaning that the hole was also attempting to suck _him_ in as well.

It already had half of Naruto. Crouching down and latching onto the floor with both his hands and feet was the only course of action that Sasuke had. He tried to back away but that only gave him one less anchor to the floor and he was nearly swept away until he reattached his foot. All of this was happening while he observed the rest of Naruto's body being pulled into the hole until there was nothing left of the young man in this dimension. The arcs of energy lingered in the air for a moment after they had finished pulling in Naruto. Like a coiled snake striking, the arcs suddenly struck Sasuke as though they'd become magnetically attracted to him.

Sasuke lost all sense of himself once the energy arcs struck. If he could've, he would have screamed. It _hurt_. But the pain wasn't just physical. It went to a much deeper level than that. To him, it felt like his entire being, body, mind, and soul, were being unthreaded and cast off in several different directions. The last sensation that he felt was as if he had been picked up and then thrown directly into the hole in the fabric of space-time that he'd unintentionally created.

_**Outside the Mountain Stronghold**_

"_Chikushou!_" A roared, slamming his only fist down, crushing the desk that he sat at into tiny bits of splinters. Yet another team staggered back into the base camp, or should he say sole survivor? The whole operation was a disaster. Their forces were spread too thin to make a large scale attack feasible, so they had to do things with the bare minimum of supplies and personnel. And now it was coming to bite them in the ass.

Of the six teams that entered the stronghold, barely a third of them came back at all. Their man count was severally reduced, only one or two members of each of the teams coming back. The only team to return at anywhere near full strength was Temari's team but that was only because that foolhardy brat, Naruto, folded the leftovers of his team into hers and told them to go home. Not that he blamed the kid for making them retreat. They each had a severe case of chakra depletion that they would have been more a hindrance to the mission than a help.

Gaara stood some ways away from A, throwing orders around like candy at a kid's birthday party. Once all of the teams had infiltrated, he ceased his sandstorm and began directing the jutsu artillery squads. Once the squads started limping back in, he also had to direct various medic squads to their positions. At the same time, he had to have them escorted by specially trained men and women who could sense the difference between a human and the Zetsu lookalikes.

Gaara was in the process of giving written commands to a runner when a bright flash of light caught his attention in his peripheral vision. He turned towards it just as A stood up shouting in disbelief. He would have joined him if he could've. But a wall of white light rushed at them, seemingly consuming them, the landscape, and the whole world around it.

And then they knew nothing.

Half a world away stood an old man. He stood on top of a hill, taking in the spectacular view of the valley below and the land beyond it. But he wasn't looking at the view. He was standing over two freshly dug graves, the only markers were two katana, standing point down. Both of the katana were well worn from a recent battle and they would have been identical if not for the different sets of nicks and cracks in the blades. The old man moved to place a single flower, a rose, on a grave. The katana that lay at its head had a dark blue fabric woven around its handle.

"I'm sorry, Megumi," he said, his voice cracking slightly as he spoke his granddaughter's name. He moved to the next grave, the katana here had simple leather straps wrapped around the handle. The old man did not speak; he silently regarded the grave of his son as a gamut of emotions ran through his head. He had failed so many times in the past, and they all compounded each other. Until, finally, they culminated into this; a father and daughter killing each other over something as relatively trivial as honor.

"I wish…" the man began but then his voice gave out for a moment as his emotions bubbled up. With iron control, he swallowed them back down but he did not continue. Such things were pointless when the outcome could never be changed. He gave one last look at their graves and turned to watch the setting sun one last time. He gasped in terror at the sight before him.

Instead of a red sun falling, he gazed upon a wall of pure white light that was swallowing everything that it touched. He watched as whole flocks of birds disappeared into the white light, the trees they had just emptied long gone already. As the end of all things rushed towards the man, the last thing he heard himself say was, "Kami-sama…"

And like everything else before him, he knew of nothing else.

**20 Years Earlier, Mt. Myouboku**

It was a peaceful day in the legendary sanctuary of toads; the birds happily sung their songs, the few insects that were both clever and bold enough to make their homes here contentedly buzzed around, minding their own business. The Great Toad Sage sat upon his dais, looking to the entire world like he was taking a nap. He probably was. His two subordinates, Fukusaku and Shima, sat at their customary positions of just below and to the side of the elder sage, giving him the respect that he so obviously deserved.

Unlike their esteemed elder, Fukusaku and Shima were both meditating. They were too busy contemplating whatever it is that toad sages contemplate to really bother with soaking in the peaceful atmosphere. Then again, they were coldblooded amphibians and the sun was directly overhead, so they were probably just getting their blood warm. Suddenly the Great Toad Sage jerked up in his seat, his eyes shooting wide open and began to rapidly roam around, like he was trying to watch something that wasn't there.

"Honorable Geezer!" both Fukusaku and Shima exclaimed, startled by his sudden activity. They leapt from their positions to give whatever aid they could to their elder but stopped short when the great sage held up one hand, showing that while he was having an episode, he was conscious of his surroundings. This went on for another painful minute when, just as suddenly as it began, the elder sage sagged back into his seat, taking several deep breaths.

"Is everything alright, honorable geezer?" Shima asked taking a step forward to assist the great sage. The elder toad however did not answer her but instead reached behind his throne and pulled out a long dark pole as thick as a human fist. Both Fukusaku and Shima unconsciously straightened and gulped. They both vividly remember their sage training under the elder and they had an extremely rational fear of his nature energy expulsion rod.

The elder sage then turned his head to face Fukusaku and again the toad gulped. There was an almost unnatural fire in the elder sage's eyes, and it frightened Fukusaku to his core. Then the sage spoke to him, in an angry tone that neither he nor Shima had heard from him before. "Fukusaku, in two days' time, you will be summoned by a man that you do not know. And when he asks, you will bring him here."

"Honorable one?" Fukusaku asked, obviously confused. The elder sage merely grunted and sat back in his seat, his staff still held in his hand.

"That is all I can tell you for now, young one. But rest assured, when that young man gets here, he's in for a world of hurt," the elder sage grumbled, his anger clearly evident.

**A few hours later, unknown location**

Oh, it hurt. That was all Naruto could think about as his eyes shot open. The pain that was wracking his body was transcending every other type of pain he had ever previously experienced, and he knew quite a bit of pain. Try as he might, he just couldn't get up. Every time that he did his muscles would protest. After failing to get up for the umpteenth time he finally relaxed and decided to take several deep breaths and wait out the pain. That's when he noticed that he wasn't breathing.

Despite trying with every fiber of his being, his chest would not rise, his diaphragm would not contract, and his lips would not part. It was disguised underneath the other mountains of pain, that burning sensation in his lungs as his body rapidly went through its suddenly limited oxygen supply. It was when the burning feeling reached its peak that he knew he didn't have much time left. When his world began to darken, he started to panic. It was with a determination bordering on zeal that he ravaged his mind, thinking of something to keep himself from becoming yet another statistic of chakra depletion when it came to him. It was simple and easy to do; he was already doing half of it anyway.

Naruto closed his eyes and concentrated. With a flood of nature energy, he took an explosive breath of life-saving air. He simply lay there, letting the nature energy supplement his normal reserves (which were absent for the first time in his life) and he just concentrated on breathing. In an obscure line of thought, he found he could fully empathize with newborns. Chuckling at his near-death inspired humor, Naruto closed his eyes and concentrated once more. Instead of focusing his will outward, trying to feel the nature energy of the world around him he went inward, into his mind's representation of the seal and Kyuubi. He was honestly surprised at what he saw.

The first thing to note was that the seal was in tatters. Only one of the red gates that pinned down the Kyuubi was standing at all, and only just at that. This seal probably couldn't hold a toddler if it tried right now but what surprised Naruto even more was that the Kyuubi wasn't even trying to escape. In fact, it looked even worse than the seal. To Naruto, it was just fur and bones, its breaths were hollow and weak and it took him a moment to realize that the _cool _breeze that he was feeling was actually the fox's breath. Whatever the hell happened to him took the worst out of a nearly inexhaustible being like the Kyuubi, and it showed.

Naruto couldn't bring himself to say anything, just stare in awe and terror at the sight of the mighty Kyuubi felled by chakra depletion. And then the Kyuubi moved. It wasn't much; it just opened a single eyelid to stare back at Naruto. It was so tired that it couldn't even manage to lift half an eyelid! Once it recognized Naruto, its body gave a light tremor, like it was trying to get back up but simply _couldn't_. But it did have the strength to speak.

"You're welcome," it muttered, and then its eye lid closed and to all appearances it looked like it was sleeping. Naruto decided to let it have some rest, considering that it was the Kyuubi that woke him up when he was suffocating. Closing his eyes briefly, he left his mindscape and went back to reality. At this point, the nature energy was fully circulated throughout his whole body. Instead of feeling like a million flaming needles were being slammed into his body, it only felt like 500 _thousand_ flaming needles were being jammed into his body.

With this newly-reduced feeling of pain, Naruto gingerly lifted himself up and hesitantly rose, wincing slightly as some of the more damaged areas of his body protested this course of action. Once vertical (albeit at a slight angle due to leaning against a tree trunk), Naruto looked around, observing his surroundings with a critical eye. He was in a heavily wooded area with ever rising hills. This told him that he was in the northwest portion of the Land of Fire, a couple hundred miles away from the mountain stronghold the he and the shinobi army had been assaulting.

As Naruto looked up into the sky, he didn't find himself too overly concerned with that piece of information. He traveled greater distances when he was experimenting with the Kyuubi's chakra. It would just be a long trip home. But as he observed the heavens, that slight concern multiplied into dread quickly at what he saw. The stars were all wrong! Constellations that had been on the way out of the night sky were only just beginning to come _in_. And the constellations that were in full view of the night sky were the ones found during late fall, most likely late October or early November. But that couldn't be possible as it had been the first week of June when they attacked the stronghold.

"What the hell is going on?" Naruto whispered to himself, his heart and mind racing. Had he failed? Had he somehow survived the extraction only to be placed within Madara's penultimate illusion? This line of questioning, however, bred a counter line of questioning. Questions such as if the Kyuubi had been extracted, why could he still talk to it? Naruto vigorously shook his head, long golden locks splaying all over.

'_Get a hold of yourself!'_ he thought, taking a deep breath and running a hand though his now displaced hair, _'Remember what Shikamaru always says: 'Act according to your information. If you have little to no information, find some more.' Since I don't know where I am, let's change that.'_ Now armed with some semblance of a plan, Naruto spotted the outlines of the mountains that began the territory of the Land of Earth and began limping in the opposite direction, deeper into the Land of Fire and hopefully closer to Konoha.

**Three hours later**

Naruto's situation had improved immensely. He could finally stop channeling nature energy as his regular reserves had grown enough to support him on their own. This also led to the pain in his body diminishing greatly. And although it was still present, it didn't hurt so badly. But the best part was that he finally found himself on the outskirts of a small village. It was a sleepy little hamlet with only a few guards and no night activity whatsoever. It was perfect for Naruto to sneak into.

After several lessons with Shikamaru, Naruto learned the value of discretion. As these people were currently not enemies, it would be rude to wake them all up by just waltzing into the village screaming bloody murder. So he created a single Kage Bunshin (my god, a _single_ clone), he was somewhat surprised that he could actually _feel_ the chakra expenditure. _'So this is what it must feel like to be a regular jonin,'_ Naruto thought, chuckling to himself.

There was less hassle with sending in a single clone. He could get in and out sure enough but having a clone get in, gather its intended information and then merely disperse into a puff of harmless smoke, letting him gain all its memories, was so much easier and less likely to be exposed. Its objective was simple: where and when. The where was simple enough but the when was something that was bothering him. The misplaced constellations were bugging him something fierce and he wanted to double check just to ease his mind. After several agonizing minutes of waiting, his clone finally dispelled itself.

His mind was not eased.

Upon receiving and processing the information, Naruto almost fell over in shock. The date was October, 29, 243 years after the founding of Hi no Kuni, three years before he was _born_, and a whole twenty years before the joint Shinobi army assaulted the stronghold! Naruto's clone hadn't gone to just one house though. It had broken into several other houses as well, gaining the exact same information in every household.

"What the hell is this?" Naruto said to himself, his voice coming out a harsh whisper but then he whipped around and screamed up at the full, incredibly bright moon, "_WHAT THE __**FUCK**__ IS THIS, MADARA?_" Was this a sick joke on Madara's part? It just couldn't be happening, could it? Why? Why was he in the past, if he was in the past?

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he said, and a mass of clones (a pathetic amount really, only twenty in total number) but he collapsed from the utterly unwise usage of chakra in his condition. One clone moved to help him but he shoved it off (lightly) and lifted his head to address the group of clones. "Go! Everywhere! Prove this wrong!" he ordered and without preamble the clones sped off in twenty separate directions.

It was then that Naruto noticed that he had just alerted the village to his presence, lights were turning on in the houses and at least one of the sleepy guards was looking in his general direction. "Fuck," he muttered to himself and hobbled off, doing his best in his drained state to not leave an overly obvious trail. Things were bad enough without having to announce himself to the whole world.

It was two days later and Naruto was lying on his back in some random cold, damp cave that he had found. He slept there the first night but then his clones started to dispel, slowly, and none of them had any information that helped, they only confirmed that he was somehow twenty years in the past. He had eaten very little in these past two days, merely sifting through all of the information that his clones had gathered.

What had really done his mental health in was that one of his clones actually had the audacity to check out Konoha. The basic layout of the city was slightly different as the Kyuubi had yet to be unleashed upon the unsuspecting village so nothing had to be rebuilt. More importantly was that they were only now working on the bust of the Yondaime Hokage on the Hokage Mountain. Tsunade's face was nowhere to be seen. That's when it really sunk in for him, that he was stuck in the past (or in an illusion of the past as set up by Madara).

And so, half a day later Naruto was at his wits' end, trying to see what possible options that he even had at the moment. There was no way that he could go to Konoha. There were just too many questions that he couldn't answer. Hell, anywhere that he could think to go, there would be too many questions that h_e just couldn't answer. _But then a stray thought passed through his mind, it brought with it a small glimmer of hope that he almost instantly latched onto.

'_What about Fukusaku-san and Shima-obachan?'_ some small voice of reason, or insanity for that matter, whispered in his head and he mulled the thought over. Fukusaku and Shima were both wise and they had helped him out immensely with his sage training. Hell, even the old geezer sage had told him to seek out Killer Bee in some sort of future vision, so maybe he could help him out or something.

There were so many uncertainties for Naruto, but so few options and he needed all the help he could get at the moment. So he shakily stood up and began forming the necessary hand seals to perform the summoning, praying that he actually could summon a toad. While Naruto had very little in the ways of food and rest of his chakra reserves continued to grow, they were still nowhere near full potency. So he should've had enough to call down at least one of the Toad Sages.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" he called out and was immensely relieved to see a seal array spread out from his hands and then a small cloud of smoke puff into existence. That relief grew exponentially when he saw Fukusaku standing before him in all his warty glory. Unlike everything else, the toad sage had not changed at all, even his cloak was the same. That relief was all washed away when Fukusaku spoke.

"Minato-chan?" he asked uncertainly, cocking his head to the side in confusion.

**And there you have it, with another psuedo cliff hanger to boot. :D**

**translations: **

**Chidori Eisou: Thousand Birds Sharp Spear**

**Katon: Housenka no jutsu: Mythical Fire Pheonix technique**

**Katon: goukakyuu no jutsu: great fireball technique**

**Chidori Senbon: Thousand Birds Needles**

**Fuuton: teikiatsu no jutsu: cyclone technique**

**Kamui: God's Majesty **

**Jikukan Ido: Space-Time Migration  
**

**as always please read and review, if you flame I shall wish a 1000 horrible things to happen to you and your family. if you praise my work then I shall wish for 1000 great things to happen to you and your family. If you have any sort of advice for how I can improve my writing in any way I shall wish for 10000 great things to happen to you and your family. see you all in another 2 months :D**

**Update: Thanks to cmcwiki for the Jikukan Ido correction  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: this definitely took far longer than it should have. 80% of it was because I am lazy. sloth and I are very good friends, often to my detriment. then mid august I got a job for the first time in 11 months so that took A LOT of my free time away, so there went the other 20% but hey its here now, I'm just sorry it took so long. **

**but enough about me, onwards to the story!  
**

"Minato-chan?" Fukusaku asks, tilting his head in confusion at the young man in front of him. At first glance he appeared an almost exact copy of the young man, his brilliant blue eyes and spiky gold locks were just like Minato's. But then his cheek and chin bones weren't as sharp as Minato, more rounded, reminding him oddly of Kushina except for a trio of whisker-like marks on each cheek.

As he looked closer at the young man he could see the gauntness in his cheeks implying that he hasn't eaten in some time and the dark bags under his eyes told him that he hasn't slept for same amount of time either. The boy was wearing a relieved smile when he summoned him but when his question escaped his lips the boy's face fell into a look of soul crushing despair.

"You don't recognize me?" he asked, his eyes widening and his voice becoming strained from near panic. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto and you-you trained me on Mt. Myoboku in the sage arts." Fukusaku was surprised and alarmed for several different reasons. He knew of the Uzumaki clan, or what's left of it, but as he understood it Kushina was the only surviving member of that clan and she never mentioned that she ever had a brother.

But for the boy to both know the name of the haven of the toads and claim to be trained by _his_ hand in the sage arts was, well, impossible. But then, he did summon him without ever having signed the summoning contract. There was an answer here somewhere.

"Nope," was his all too casual reply. He didn't want to phrase it like that but he needed to see if the boy was honest. Said young man didn't disappoint. The young man was still for a single moment before he limply fell over onto the ground, rolling onto his back and covered his eyes in his hands. He was silent for a moment longer before he began to chuckle, that chuckle quickly began to grow in to a full on belly laugh and Fukusaku did not like it. It was an unhealthy laugh; a laugh full of fear and despair and crushed hopes. The longer he went on, the more Fukusaku's concern grew until he finally had to ask.

"What…is the problem, boy?" he asks, none too sure how to begin. Naruto takes several deep breaths, attempting to control his insane laughter long enough to answer the toad sage.

"Oh nothing, just my world being taken and turned inside out and upside down," he answered, which made no sense to Fukusaku who decided a more direct line of questioning might get him better results.

"How did you summon me?" he asked, "Only those that have ever signed the summoning contract for the Toads can summon a sage such as me." Naruto paused again, holding his hands up, counting down something on his fingers.

"I did sign the summoning contract, just in fifteen to sixteen years," he said. Naturally Fukusaku's face read as _'Um, what?'_ Naruto barked out his insane laugh again and sat up to look at the toad more clearly.

"I know right?" he exclaimed, thrusting a hand out in a vague gesture of exasperation. "Three days ago I am storming a fortress trying to rescue a friend only to have to fight another friend, this one my _best_ friend, who pulls this weird jutsu from his ass that pulls me in and sucks me dry of almost all chakra and lands me, somehow, twenty years in the past!" By the end he is panting and Fukusaku takes a precautionary step back from the boy.

Taking even more consideration into his next question Fukusaku thought about _that _answer. Twenty years into his past? Fukusaku would have tossed it out and left the boy in a mental institute if not for his utterly uncanny resemblance to both Kushina and Minato. Thinking it through, what and how gave him no discernable answer to help the boy with so he needed to go to the root of the problem, and just work his way up.

"Why did you summon me?" he asked. This question got the biggest reaction out of Naruto, even if it was the quietest. Fukusaku was surprised when the boy seemed to deflate right before him. Naruto's eyes were downcast, his shoulders slumped, and a tight grimace fell over his face.

"I don't know what to do," he whispered, his eyes shining in unshed tears as if he were confessing his darkest, most depressing secret. With raising eyebrows Fukusaku realized that that was the problem. This boy, this Naruto, had lost his confidence. But it went further than just his confidence in himself for it seemed that not only was he confidant in himself but also in _where he must go_ and it was the sudden loss of what he was doing and what he must do that led to his desperation. Fukusaku then placed himself in Naruto's feet, and considered that if he had been somehow sent back into the past twenty years (no matter how impossible or improbable) and that he couldn't go to anyone that could help because they were either, as of yet, nonexistent or simply wouldn't recognize him like he did he too would be in an extremely desperate state.

He fixed his gaze back onto Naruto, considering his options once more while gauging the young man. Naruto was watching him, probably wondering whether the toad would dismiss and leave him for his outrageous story or if he would aid him in some way. Fukusaku would not have simply left the boy to his own devices if he didn't believe him but this young man, who looked so much like his apprentice's apprentice, had summoned _him_ and seemed to trust him almost implicitly. And he would not betray that trust. And then there was the prophecy that the honorable geezer had told him about, that he would be summoned by someone that he had never seen before. Either way it would seem that he would need to take the boy to Mt. Myoboku but he needed to be sure that that was what the boy wanted.

"What would you have me do?" he asked, spreading his arms in question. An almost painful relief spread over Naruto and he almost leapt for joy. _He would help!_ For a brief moment he opened his mouth, but then he closed it thinking. He had summoned Fukusaku to help him but _how_ could the little toad sage help him? It would be foolish and ignorant to think that he would simply whisk him away back to his time. The toad was powerful but not _that_ powerful.

So his options were limited to what the toad could do and what he needed. He needed proper rest and food, for one thing, and he needed to be sure that where he was, when he was, was all real. And finally he needed guidance. Even if this was real what could he do? He needed to think on this and to speak with a person who could at least point him in the right direction. He needed to see the old geezer toad.

"I need to see the Elder Sage, Fukusaku," Naruto answered and for the first time since meeting him, Naruto's eyes were firm and full of purpose.

Smiling, Fukusaku reached over and grabbed Naruto's coat and said, "Very well." In a puff of white smoke both summoner and summons had disappeared from the small cave. In a loud pop and wisps of white smoke Naruto and Fukusaku both appeared on the lower step of the Elder Sage's dais, where Fukusaku was when Naruto had summoned him. Naruto looks around and sees Shima staring at him in confusion and caution and Naruto tries to smile at her reassuringly. Once it was clear that she wouldn't react Naruto looked up and saw that the Elder Sage was glaring down at him, something that he had never seen from the ancient toad before.

Taking a step forward Naruto begins to introduce himself, "Hey Old geezer, my name is Naruto-" He didn't even get to finish his name. The Elder Sage's arm blurred and all Naruto could see were the pretty-pretty stars that danced just out of his reach. Once his vision cleared he sat up groggily (when had he lain down to begin with?).

"Wh-why did you do that?" he asked, his voice coming out like a drunken slur. "I wasn't channeling anything." Shima turned her head sharply to Fukusaku with an inquiring look. Fukusaku could only shrug his shoulders, neither confirming nor denying the boy's statement. The boy's question only seemed to deepen the Elder Sage's angry grimace.

"Do you have any idea what you have done?" The Elder Sage asked his voice barely lower than a roar. Naruto, however concussed, was never one to back down at the sight of someone's righteous anger.

"No I don't!" he challenged, which caught all three sages off guard but Naruto continued. "How do I know that this isn't some sort of elaborate illusion Madara made especially for me to fuck with my mind?"

"Illusion?" Shima asks, concerned. Even Fukusaku was surprised by that.

"Madara?" The elder asked his concern slightly more palpable than his younger compatriots.

"Yeah, Madara is still alive in this illusionary time travel torture thingy," Naruto answers, nodding as if this were to be common knowledge.

"Explain," commanded the Elder Sage. He knew that there can be a few, very powerful, individuals that can live to such an extent. The Rikuddo Sennin was one such example. If Uchiha Madara was one of those individuals, and nobody knew about it, then things could be very, very bad indeed. Naruto sat up more straightly, the stars from his concussion no longer swimming across his vision.

"Well, to start, I guess we have to go back to before Konoha was founded…" Naruto began. And he told them everything he knew, of the originations of the Uchiha and Senju clans, how they were really the descendants of the children of the Rikuddo Sennin. He spoke of the true foundation of Konoha and how the Uchiha betrayed Madara, causing his century long path of vengeance. He told them that as he was being born Madara interfered and released the Kyuubi from his mother while the seal was weakened, and how his parents used the last of their chakra to reseal the Kyuubi within their new born child.

He spoke of his early childhood, of no friends and cold glares and turned backs. And he never knew why, which hurt the most. He told them of his days as a genin, bonding with his first real friends, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi. He told of his training with Jiraiya and of returning to Konoha after three years. Of all the battles with Akatsuki, how he either had to run and hide, which he hated, or to stand and fight them. And finally He spoke of the war; of the two years of hell that followed Madara's declaration at the Kage's summit in Tetsu no Kuni.

It is an hour later when Naruto finally finishes his tale, his mouth dry and Shima is nearly in tears. Fukusaku himself felt pity for the boy, for the tale that was told was just too elaborate for any type of illusion.

"Boy, we're, this is not an illusion," He tries to reason with Naruto, who predictably shook his head in the negative.

"So says the illusion," he says, almost petulantly. Naturally this earns him a slight tap on the head again from the Elder Sage.

"Think Naruto!" The elder says, "If we're an illusion meant to torture you, why did Fukusaku come when you summoned him? Why did he bring you here when you asked for help?" This did get Naruto thinking. Sure there were several convoluted things he could say, but they were just there to prolong the argument, to blind him from seeing any sort of hope. And he was seeing hope now, maybe he didn't know what to do yet, be he knew that he could do something now.

"Besides, isn't there an even worse way to torture you than simply throwing you backwards in time twenty years?" Shima asked, fueling that line of hope in his heart.

"Yeah, my childhood," Naruto says. It would be more in keeping with Madara's style to just erase his memories and toss back to when he was a kid, when everyone hated him for something that he never knew about.

"Whether or not Naruto believes this reality to be true is not the most pressing concern right now," the Elder Sage announced, drawing attention back to the matter at hand. "What is more concerning is what do we do from here for the fates of many have been rewritten by your very arrival, Naruto."

"What should I do?" Naruto asked. The Elder Sage leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, attempting to pierce the veil of the future. Probably. After a moments silence the Elder Sage grunts and sits forward once more.

"I cannot see," he says, "What you do from this point on is up to you, Naruto." Naruto nods in understanding. He bows his head in thought, trying to thin of something but he was so tired. The past three days of no sleep and little to eat had left him drained and a hungry Naruto was not a productive Naruto. As if in agreement Naruto's stomach lets out a surprisingly loud growl, catching him and the toads off guard. Smiling sheepishly, Naruto looks up at the Elder Sage and see that for the first time the ancient toad is smiling at him, giving him a grandfatherly smile like he remembered the toad used to do.

"You may, of course take your time, Naruto-kun," the Elder Sage says, "rest, eat, and think. You have some time to do these things." Naruto smiled in relief and bowed to the Elder Sage.

"Thank you for all your help!" Naruto says. The Elder Sage just chuckles and makes a shooing motion with his hand.

"C'mon, boy," Shima says and she begins to lead him back to where her and Fukusaku's dwelling was, which he knew the way to. They did take a roundabout way in order to avoid the other toads, younger toads. Shima and Fukusaku weren't summoned too often these days by either Jiraiya or Minato but many of the younger toads were and they _loved_ to talk. After a hearty meal (where Fukusaku snuck Naruto human edible foods) Shima pulled out a human sized fuuton, explaining that this is where Jiraiya slept when he underwent his sage training. He didn't exactly relish the thought of sleeping in the same place where his former teacher slept but it appeared to have been cleaned since then so he just manned up and fell onto the fuuton.

He was out before his head hit the soft cloth.

_**The Next Day**_

KABOOM!

The sudden explosion rocked Shima and Fukusaku's dwelling, startling them awake while shaking everything of value down off of the walls. They run out into the predawn light in nothing but their sleep wear and come find an incredibly puzzling sight. There Naruto was charging head first into a literal horde of his himself, an odd circle of wind wrapped around his arms and hands as he systematically went about destroying his insta-army.

Naruto had just carved his way through one gang of kage bunshin and was considering how to go through the next wave when a beige blur caught his attention. He turned his head just in time to take a nature energy expulsion staff directly to his right temple. With the cracking sound wood can only give off when striking something obstinately hard, Naruto was given another basic introduction to Mother Earth. Naruto sat up wobbly, rubbing the sizable lump that was slowly growing on the side of his head.

"Wh-why did you do that?" Naruto asked, looking over at the toads. They were glaring at him, or only Fukusaku was glaring at him. Shima was boiling over in sleep deprived anger and looked like she wanted to kill him in the most brutal way she could possibly imagine. Neither answered but then a ray of sunlight hit Naruto in the eyes as the sun rose over the mountainous edges of Mt. Myoboku. That was when he remembered almost the exact same lesson when he had first begun his Sage training. Toads were cold blooded creatures and needed the sun to warm their bodies after a night of sleep. Meaning that toads like Fukusaku and Shima preferred to sleep until the sun was higher, getting more heat over a shorter period of time.

"Heheh, sorry," Naruto apologized, his cheeks red with embarrassment. Their looks each downgraded to a scowl from Fukusaku and an 'I'm gonna kill you later' expression from Shima. They both shuffled their way back into their home while Naruto turned around and went deeper in the Mountain, remembering the secluded spot where he always trained and why he needed it to stay alive.

From that point on, everyday was much the same as the first day Naruto woke up on Mt. Myoboku (without waking up two homicidal toads). Naruto would wake up early each day, head out to his spot, and eat whatever foodstuffs that he had hidden away there for breakfast before commencing his training. When he started to train Naruto had no idea what he wanted to do, he just needed to move around and get some of the kinks out of his system. As he battered his way past clone and mushroom stalk alike on that first day he considered the almost untenable position that he was suddenly thrust into.

There wasn't a whole lot that he could do right now but he did have some time before things began to snowball. Stopping the Kyuubi from being pulled out of his mother would be a relatively simple job to do. He knew the time, his birthday, and the place was somewhere around Konoha. He had some time on his side but he needed tools to help him succeed.

That thought made him look down at this gauntlets. Jutsu were tools right?

On the evening the fourth day, Naruto was doing what he usually did the past three days. He was training in his newest jutsu. Ever since he was forced to fight with the rest of the Joint Shinobi Army, Naruto had seen an almost countless number of jutsus and techniques used, and each one had brought with it a hundred different forms of inspiration. But Naruto never had the time to employ these inspirations in practice and only rarely could he find ways to use them in battle. But now he found himself with a surplus of time and what better way of using that time than to create masterpieces of destruction?

"Ready?" Naruto called across the clearing that he was standing in. He was answered by a roar of affirmation by the few hundred clones that he had created standing on the opposite side of the clearing. Nodding to himself, Naruto went through four hand seals in quick succession before calling out his newest technique.

"Fuuton: Kaze Kiwa!" Almost instantly a localized cyclone encircled his hand and forearm, coming to a rapidly spinning point just off the tip of his middle finger. Naruto observed it for several seconds, almost mesmerized in watching its flow, making sure that it wasn't fluctuating or dispersing. The shaking ground drew him away from his observations and as he looked up he saw his self made army charging finally. Smirking savagely he charged right at them, the Kaze Kiwa circling as fiercely.

Combining the chakra extension of the Hein no jutsu with the spinning of the rasengan, Naruto had created a technique that had surprised him in its destructive capabilities. To him the Hein no jutsu was a scalpel, a very precise instrument. On the other end of the spectrum was the rasengan, it did an extraordinary amount of damage in a large area thus it served as his sledgehammer. The Kaze Kiwa fit right in the middle of them. It was precise enough not to do any collateral damage but it was powerful enough to tear down an enemy's defenses with little to no work. It was a beautiful and simple technique, something that he enjoyed using.

Just as Naruto and the clone army clashed, Naruto swung the Kaze Kiwa in an arc in front of him, tearing through the first group of clones with ease. A second wave of clones came right after and each bunshin held a rasengan in hand that was thrust straight at Naruto. Ducking underneath the reaching arms Naruto lashed out with his arm again, this time swinging in a circle and taking out the legs of all the bunshin that was surrounding him.

A series of growing shadows had Naruto rolling to the right, just as three clones crashed into the ground, feet stretched out. As Naruto came back up he was met with a heel kick to his diaphragm, knocking the breath out of him and sending him stumbling backwards. Another clone seized upon his weakness and launched a kick into his kidneys, sending a spike of pain up his spine and pitching him forward. He was able to roughly turn it into a defensive roll, rolling past several bunshin and coming up with a second new technique.

"Fuuton: Kaze Wana!" he called out and almost instantly a hurricane force wind formed, sucking everything in towards Naruto's spinning figure. Drawing inspiration from his battle with Nagato and combining it with a minor wind technique that he picked up during the war Naruto created a technique very much like Nagato's Banshou Tenin.

The sudden winds would rip opponents from the ground, drawing them in towards the center, Naruto. The one draw back to the jutsu was that it had no power to put down an opponent aside from the momentum that they accrued in flying towards him, and against enemies such as the resurrected ninja and the legion of Zetsu such momentum was nowhere near enough. That's why he always followed it up with a second technique.

"Fuuton: Kaze Tate!" Naruto roared once a decent sized clump of Kage Bunshin circled over him and accentuated his roar by sweeping his hands over his head. A gust of wind with the strength to tear buildings apart followed in the wake of his hand sweep, flowing up and into the cloud of shadow clones. Such was the force of the wind shield that the first few clones that it contacted were dispelled instantly, the rest were jettisoned high in to the sky almost becoming indistinct dots in the sky.

"How'd you like that?" Naruto asked arrogantly, placing his fists on his hips and puffing his chest out. The remaining clones were not impressed and made a uniform gesture with their hands and suddenly Naruto finds himself in the middle of a steel storm of kunai and shuriken.

"What the hell?" Naruto screeches as he surges the Kyuubi's chakra through his system and flashes to above the clone army and all the pointy metal. "Time out!" he yells as he lands, catching himself with a few extra arms and walks over to where the remainder of the clones for the day's training stood. "What the hell guys! I said to make it realistic, not 'shove a kunai up my ass'," Naruto berated, though it had little effect on his own likenesses.

"What ever man," one bunshin said disdainfully, "Right now whatever enemies we make will want to kill us, not catch us and suck our demon out like Madara wants to." The clone did have a valid point but it wasn't what Naruto was concerned about right now.

"This was training," Naruto growled out, a tick mark pulsing on his forehead. "It's counterproductive to training if it kills me."

"So, you got out didn't you?" the disdainful clone argued. This time the tick mark pulsed on Naruto's hand and made it spasm, forcing him to slap the back talking clone upside the head and dispelling it. With a deep breath and a quick downward count Naruto turned to the rest of his clones and explained what they were doing again.

"I cannot openly use the Kyuubi's chakra from this point on. It would make me a target for not only Madara but everyone else as well," Naruto explained, "It would be really weird to have two people running around with the Kyuubi's chakra, and we don't want that." The clones all made sounds of affirmation and understanding which inexplicably him made him rub his temples in slow stress relieving circles. They were him weren't they? So why couldn't they understand that simple fact? Closing his eyes for a moment Naruto opened them to see the sun setting behind the mountains of Myoboku.

"All right, that's enough for today," Naruto said, dispelling the remaining clones with a thought. Walking home was a leisurely affair; the cooling breeze ran gently down Naruto's spine, sending a pleasant chill through him. The shadows lengthened and deepened until it was nearly pitch black when he got to Shima and Fukusaku's house, a small cottage like building that gave off a very homey sort feeling to Naruto. As he walked up he saw that Shima had the table already set with "dinner" and with a precursory gulp Naruto walked inside the home.

"Ah, Naruto-chan, right on time!" Shima exclaimed as she set down a platter of centipedes that were arranged in a flower like pattern. "How was your training today?" she asked, giving him a warm look.

"Ah, training was pretty good today, got a lot done," Naruto answered, giving her his own warm look in return. Once she was turned around Naruto gave a _glance_ to Fukusaku who coolly looked at a blank wall space and then back to Naruto. Biting his cheek not to sigh in relief Naruto began "helping" himself to the food on the table. During dinner they made pleasant conversation, mainly Shima getting Naruto to give more accurate details on various parts of Naruto's past life while Fukusaku just sat back and listened. Once they were finished and cleared the table of all dishes Naruto leaned forward in his seat.

"I think I finally know what to do with myself," Naruto announced to which Fukusaku and Shima both looked at him with interest. Taking a deep breath Naruto went on to explain. "The one thing that I never understood was that the Joint Shinobi army consisted of Shinobi from only the five main ninja villages; Konoha, Kumo, Iwa, Suna, and Kiri. Not once did they ask for aid from the several dozen minor villages spread throughout the elemental nations, even when we were deathly low on man power."

"Would they have made a difference?" Fukusaku asked, lighting up a pipe to smoke from.

"Not at first but near the end, yes," Naruto answered, "A minor village may barely come close to a third of a major village in terms of resources and man power but as there are almost two dozen such villages while there are only five major villages that can more than make up for it."

"But what does that have to do with what you are going to do?" Shima asked.

"I'm going to start my own ninja village!" Naruto said, an extremely large and happy smile spreading across his face.

"An ambitious goal, Naruto-chan," Fukusaku said, puffing on his smoke pipe. "Why?" Naruto shrugged at the question.

"I always wanted to be the Hokage," he said, looking distantly at the window on the far wall. "It would be rather unfair to, well, everyone if I sought the Hokage's hat so I will go for the next best thing and be the head of my own ninja village. Plus I can force the issue when things begin to hit the fan."

"What are you going to need to start this village of yours?" Fukusaku asked, deeply interested.

"Well, I'm going to need several things: a country with plenty of resources, a daimyo willing to finance the construction of such a village, a steady supply of missions, and finally a well established trade route."

Nodding in understanding Fukusaku asked, "Do you know of any countries with all of these things?" Naruto shook his head no. Fukusaku was silent for a moment before he turned to Shima, "Ma, why don't you go and get us a map while Naruto-chan and me discuss the finer points some more."

Nodding Shima hopped down from her seat and bounded out of the dining room. The second she was out of sight Fukusaku leapt from his seat and went straight to the blank wall space that he motioned to before, pushing his hand again a particular plank. The plank right next to his hand jumped open without a sound and quicker than a flash Fukusaku's hand darted into the hidden compartment.

Just as fast as his hand entered it exited, this time holding a small traveling sack that he lightly tossed over to Naruto. Deftly catching the bag Naruto stuffed it into his own, larger bag as Fukusaku closed the hidden compartment. They had just resumed their former positions as Shima entered the room, blissfully unaware of what had just transpired.

"So, where shall we start?" Fukusaku asked as they began scouring the map.

"How about Ta no Kuni?" Shima proposed but Naruto shook his.

"Not sure of the specific time but that's where Orochimaru sets up his own personal little village, Otogakure no Sato," Naruto answered. That was probably another thing to add to his list, dealing with the original Orochimaru and somehow stopping Kabuto from becoming Orochimaru 2.0. _'Baby steps, Naruto, baby steps,' _he thought to himself.

"Well, why not just take it from him?" Shima asked. Again Naruto shook his head in the negative.

"A fight with one of the legendary Sannin would draw too much attention to me and as I am right now I don't think I can kill him without using the Kyuubi's chakra," Naruto answered her, giving her a sheepish smile, "Even then it would still be up in the air if I could kill him, he's one slippery bastard." Shima nodded her head at his reasoning, Fukusaku and she knew full well what Orochimaru was capable from what they had been told by Jiraiya.

"Then how about Tsume no Kuni?" Fukusaku asked and what followed was an interesting session of Naruto shooting down just about every country either Fukusaku or Shima suggested for one reason or another. It was just as Shima started to pound her head on the table in frustration after Naruto shot down her seventh suggestion, the Land of Noodles (seriously he loved ramen but he wasn't crazy enough about it to start a ninja village where its main export item were noodles.), that he took notice of Nami no Kuni and he remembered what it became after Tazuna built that damn bridge of his.

Smiling he looked up at the toad couple, "I think we have a winner," he said getting their attention almost instantly.

"Where?" Fukusaku asked and Naruto pointed directly to Nami no Kuni on the map, barely bigger than a large spot next to Hi no Kuni.

"It's rather small," Shima commented.

"And it's rather poor. Right now anyways," Naruto said, drawing questioning look from both toads.

"What do you mean?" Fukusaku asked.

"It just needs a bridge," Naruto answered, grinning cheekily.

"A bridge?" Shima asked, confused. Fukusaku also threw in his own questioning look, almost demanding Naruto to explain. Naruto was only too happy to oblige them.

"It all started with my first ever C-rank mission…" Naruto started, telling them of his time in Wave, about how he and his team protected Tazuna the bridge builder from the evil Gatou. Once they had succeeded and moved on Naruto had heard a few things about Wave in his travels with Jiraiya, how it became an economic powerhouse making Tazuna, the Daimyo and just about every other citizen of Wave all absurdly rich. It would be perfect.

"Ok, but how could a single bridge raise an entire country from poverty like that?" Shima asked. Using his pointer and pinky fingers Naruto pointed out two different trade routes, one was a land route running down from Otafuku Gai and into the Tea Country. The second was a sea route that jumped all over the Eastern Sea area, hitting almost every island except for Wave.

"Once the bridge and a road that connects it to the Southern Trade Route is built merchants from all over the eastern area of Hi no Kuni will naturally migrate to a fresh new area that is now easily accessible," Naruto explained, motioning with his hands. He then pointed to the multitudes of Islands that rested in the eastern sea and the various trade routes that crisscrossed between them. Again these lines came close but did not touch Nami. "As soon as the news of the bridge spreads merchants from the eastern sea will also migrate there, not only for the fresh pastures but also because of the embargos that Hi no Kuni has placed on Mizu no Kuni and its satellite nations."

"Hn, the goods won't be able to get into Hi so there'll be a lot of buying and selling going between parties while in Nami," Fukusaku commented.

"Exactly! If the people of Nami can become the middlemen they'll be making money hand over fist!" he said, his excitement bubbling into his voice. Fukusaku and Shima both smiled, happy for the young man but one thing needed to be clear.

"Now, Naruto-kun, this effect this bridge has and will have on the rest of the world, is this something you figured out or is it something you remembered from your time?" Fukusaku asked. Naruto looked at him confusedly.

"Um, this is all stuff that I remembered…" Naruto said, trailing off, wondering where they were going with this.

"How much do you know about economics?" Shima asked in turn, her voice almost resigned.

"…" was Naruto's answer.

"Thought so," Shima said, this time her voice was resigned to the fact that she must now teach Naruto something very important.

"What does it matter?" Naruto asked. Shima just gave him a dry look.

"It's important because you have to know your village's resources," Fukusaku explained, his patience much higher than that of Shima's. "You have to know what you can do with what resources. You need to know how much food you can buy for your forces, and an Island nation like Nami will need to depend on other nations for food if it's going to suddenly start growing a sizable military force."

"And you need to know how much of that food needs to be sent to your village based on how many people are working in your village," Shima added before getting up and hopping back into the room where she got the world map. A minute later she hopped back in with a small stack of books. The top book had a picture of a line zigzagging horizontally across a grid of sorts and its title read _Economics for Idiots_. A sense of doom settled in Naruto's stomach that he hadn't felt since the last time Iruka tortured him with a pop quiz.

"You had best sit back and prepare yourself Naruto-chan," Shima said, smirking as if she could _feel_ his dread. "If you're serious about this hidden village of your's then the least we can do is shove the basics into your head." She then slid _Economics for Idiots_ across the table to him and his felling of dread multiplied a hundred fold.

"I-I have to study?" Naruto asked in a small voice. Shima and Fukusaku to a lesser extent smiled an evil smile that he had never seen from the toad matriarch.

"Yep. Get crackin' boy!" She said, pulling out her Nature Energy Repulsion Rod and slapped it down onto the slap making Naruto not jump in surprise but slam his head down onto the book in despair.

Over the next three days Naruto would go off and train during the day, making sure to keep away from the other toads by training the in most remote reaches of Myoboku. At night he would return the Shima and Fukusaku's dwelling to be tortured by them with math and economics.

It was the seventh day of his stay in Mt. Myoboku and for once Naruto wasn't in the process of destroying a grove of mushroom trees and a horde of his own Kage Bunshin. Instead he was sitting atop a flat board precariously balanced on a small point of stone a couple dozen feet off the ground. Naruto wasn't overly concerned with his position however as he was meditating, focusing deeper within himself to the point where he no longer smelled the humid evening air of Myoboku but the disgusting sewer stench that was seal in his mind.

Opening his eyes Naruto stood before the door that led to the Kyuubi's seal, barely a sound coming from the other side. It has been nearly ten days since their arrival and Naruto hadn't heard even one single contemptuous whisper from the biju, causing some slight concern for the angry fur ball from Naruto. Not that he would ever openly show it to the fox lord, the Kyuubi hated any and all forms of pity especially from its host.

Opening the door and walking through its threshold brought Naruto to the seal room where the Kyuubi was pinned to the floor by the red gate structures of the seal. The seal its self was much improved since their arrival. Where only one rickety gate barely stood holding the Kyuubi in place, signifying that the seal was barely holding on by a thread, now all of the gates stood firmly in place, restraining the great beast even as it snored blissfully unaware. The Kyuubi too looked much better, its mass returning to its original mountain destroying size, an upgrade from their arrival of skin and bones.

Naruto watched it for a moment, letting its hot breath push and pull him as it breathed. Naruto shook his head ruefully before taking a deep breath.

"OI! FURBALL!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. As his voice finished echoing around the immense cavern the Kyuubi twitched slightly, its brow tightening and loosening as it either tried to fight to keep its sleep or it tried to fight it off. Naruto was willing to bet on the former so he started whistling a jaunty tune, as loud and out of tune as he could possibly make it. It appeared to be working for after a moment of Naruto's incessant whistling the Kyuubi started to pitifully whine and growl like a little child begging its parents for more sleep.

"Would you like five more minutes dear?" his voice oozing with mock sweetness. The Kyuubi gave one last whine/growl before opening a single eyelid to glare at Naruto.

"**What?**" it growled.

"Just checking up on you, you've been asleep for ten days now," Naruto said sitting down just outside of bite range.

"**You try being a being composed almost entirely of chakra and having it all sucked out of you by some failed technique. You'd sleep just as long if you were me,**" The Kyuubi retorted. "**Dare I ask, do you have any idea of what has happened and where we are?**" The Kyuubi asked, its tone, while duragatory, was underlined by its own curiosity. The relationship between the two was still rather cold, the Kyuubi being just as stubborn as Naruto did not help things but Naruto could tell that he was beginning to put some cracks in the beast's walls.

"Well, we are currently in Mt. Myoboku," Naruto said and was interrupted by a derisive snort by the Kyuubi. The fox lord held all creatures except its fellow biju in contempt and even then they were just at its tolerance level. The toads, it appears, were down near the bottom of its list. "As for what has happened, that's something of a toss up," Naruto continued, the Kyuubi raising an eyebrow in obvious curiosity but it didn't bother to interrupt. "Either I got taken out and you were extracted thus completing the Juubi and Madara's Moon Eye Plan and for some weird reason only he can explain Madara placed me in a genjutsu where I still have you and I somehow ended up twenty years in the past."

"**Sounds plausible,**" The Kyuubi said, interrupting Naruto, "**Except that that makes no sense at all.**"

"Agreed," Naruto said, nodding, "Which then leaves us with the other option that we _are_ twenty yeas in the past." The Kyuubi just looked at Naruto for several silent seconds and then it abruptly began to laugh uproariously. It did so for several more minutes, Naruto having to step back several steps from the volume of the Kyuubi's laugh. Just as abruptly as it began the Kyuubi stopped and _glared_ at Naruto.

"**Impossible,**" it said, an unusual heat in its voice. "**Don't even joke about such things fleshling.**"

"How come?" Naruto asked, ignoring the all too common insult.

"**Because there are laws, laws that your puny brain cannot even begin to hope to grasp that say it is impossible,**" The Kyuubi answered, the heat from before was still there, cluing Naruto into something but he just couldn't pin it down.

"So then you admit to being a figment of my imagination created by an extremely powerful genjutsu?" Naruto asked. The Kyuubi's only response was to growl, like it wanted to refuse that statement but knew that it would only be leaping into a circular argument that it couldn't win. Smirking Naruto turned to go.

"Feel free to think it over, you'll end up like I did before I summoned the toads," Naruto shot out as he walked out through the door and back to the waking world. The Kyuubi stared after him for a few long minutes, a spark of something almost like fear passing through its heart.

"**Impossible…**"

**and thats that, hope you enjoyed it :) now two things I want to discuss with you my readers:**

**1) some of you may notice several jutsu that Naruto used, the Kaze Kiwa, Kaze Tate, and the Kaze Wana. these are NOT my original jutsu but tellemucis sundance's original jutsu, but as he is my beta he gave me permission to use them. so there now you can't accuse me of stealing them, if you dont believe me ask tellemicus yourself.**

**2) I will forewarn you now the 5th chapter will be longer yet because I want to fully plot out the story for this fic. I am mainly going off what tellemicus had plotted out and even that wasnt completed. I am serious about completing this monster but in order to do so I need to know what to write. shouldnt be too long, probably about as long as it took this chapter to get out :P**

**well thats enough from me, until later folks.**

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	5. Chapter 5

**And so at long last here is the next installment. This took far longer than I find acceptable to get out, but I shan't bore you with such things at the beginning of the story. please read and enjoy!**

A crisp wind blew through the mid-fall morning air of Konoha, making the morning far more brisk and colder than it otherwise should have been. Many of the civilian inhabitants were rushing about their usual business in thicker clothes but the Shinobi were nonplussed about the weather, their training having prepared them for far worse than a mere fifty degrees Fahrenheit breeze. Uchiha Fugaku was one such shinobi, standing in the shade of his manor's back deck as he watched his wife and first born son training.

"One, two, one, two!" Mikoto called out, her hands clapping a steady rhythm as his near perfect son moved in time. At three years old Itachi was far more skilled and graceful than any child his age should be. He was doing a simple agility exercise of leaping from one post to the next, the posts being low and spread out enough that if the boy did end up missing one, which he rarely did, he would not be injured too harshly. Each time they did the exercise Mikoto sped up the rhythm, gradually increasing the boy's speed.

Mikoto was dead set against such early training and a part of Fugaku was as well but he, like the clan elders, were beginning to chafe under the restrictions and suspicions that were being placed on the Uchiha clan's shoulders and Fugaku didn't like where things were heading. For the longest time he tried to reason with Mikoto, to make her see the things that he saw, the hidden eyes in the trees and the listening ears behind the walls.

But she was friends with Uzumaki Kushina and knew that her friend would never betray the trust that they had. And to a degree, Fugaku knew that Kushina would never hurt his wife. Consciously. Now her husband was a different matter entirely. Scowling for a moment Fugaku cleared his thoughts of such matters. There were more pressing subjects to attend to. As he retreated from the shadows of his house's interior he formed a small smile as he watched his wife and son play their game. Walking over Mikoto gave him a brilliant smile and let him wrap an arm around her shoulder and pull her close as she kept up Itachi's beat.

Leaning his head down so as to give his wife a quick kiss Fugaku asks behind the shield of her hair, "Are they still there?"

"They haven't moved for the past ten minutes," she answered, giving him another pleasant smile. Standing straight again Fugaku fought to keep the smile on his face. Whoever their unknown observer was, they were incredibly sloppy. Mikoto first noticed their spy when she felt a slight chakra fluctuation from a nearby tree and warned Fugaku through a series of signals.

"I sent Ishi and Kaito around his flanks and I have Gendo and Suzumi's squads waiting in the house," He said, his lips barely moving past his smile. Giving him a slight nod Mikoto stopped her clapping which was the signal to stop their game. Itachi sagged to the ground breathing in as much air as his three year old lungs could gather. He smiled when Mikoto approached, singing him the usual praises.

"That was very good Itachi-chan! Even you father was impre-"

_**BOOM!**_

A moderate sized explosion cut her off, a fireball consuming the tree that was hiding their spy. Although it was some distance away the force of the explosion had toppled Mikoto, who was unprepared for such an outcome, over. But in the blink of an eye she had picked herself up and having scooped Itachi into her arms she made for the house.

"Fuck!" Fugaku cursed, leaping towards the explosion with all possible speed. Was it booby trapped? Did the spy have an accomplice? So many questions stormed through Fugaku's mind as he rushed through the flaming debris but he knew that there would be no answers. As he arrived he surveyed the area, burning flesh distinguishing itself from the scent of wood smoke easily. Two bodies were burning and given how the blast had gone off only a few minutes ago, they had to have been dealt with before the blast.

Biting his tongue from cursing again Fugaku directed the two teams that rushed in after him to start sifting through the area for any sort of clue. Fugaku's keen mind, however, could already guess at happened. Ishi was a young man and could loosely be considered a pyromaniac, but he had enough self control to only set things on fire when it was either ordered or on his own time. And Kaito, although he was close to retiring, was a firm hand with young men like Ishi and would have been more than capable in keeping the upstart in line. How it all fell apart greatly troubled Fugaku but as he tried to delve into that particular train of thought a low groan broke him from his pondering. Looking around Fugaku noticed a bloody hand moving limply under a large bough, trying to get his attention.

"Over here!" Fugaku yelled, gaining the attention of the others nearby. A section of the bough was burning as Fugaku lifted it off of the man, some of the smoke getting into his eyes, making his eyes water and forcing him to blink a few times before he could focus his eyes on the man sprawled on the ground underneath him. He was as average as an Uchiha could be with black hair, onyx eyes, and the typical angular features. Fugaku couldn't even remember his name but knew that he was at least of dependable blood.

"Did you see the spy? Where did he go?" Fugaku asked hurriedly as the Medic hurried up behind him. The man groaned again, fighting back unconsciousness, before answering.

"Don't…know," He said and then gasped as a large splinter of wood was extracted from his side. "We…attacked him at the same time…but the…explosion…" he said, trying to get everything out before passing out from pain.

"Get him out of here," Fugaku bit out to the medics, his face contorted into an angry snarl. Right though his fingers! That spy was right there, right in his hands and because of some harebrained idiot the man had gotten away! Breathing to control his rising anger Fugaku considered everything. The injured man had given him another puzzle piece but like all the others he didn't know where to put it! The plan was for Ishi to charge the spy, get him out of hiding and Kaito would be waiting some distance away to follow the spy should he go one way or the other, or to help Ishi should the spy attempt a fight.

Noticing some movement by the house Fugaku spotted Mikoto with Itachi firmly in hand standing aside as the medics rushed the wounded man into the house. Taking one last calming deep breath Fugaku walked over to his wife and son, Mikoto watched him with concern while Itachi observed him with his ever unusually sharp eyes.

"The spy got away," was all Fugaku said.

"What happened?" Mikoto asked, concern still marring her lovely features.

"The fools rushed in at the same time, against orders, and someone dropped a paper bomb," Fugaku answered, his frustration leaking through into his voice, making it sound angrier than he wanted it to. "I believe that during the chaos Ishi and Kaito were killed before the bomb went off, wounding our other man and letting the spy escape." Fugaku then turned around to walk into the house when Mikoto asked another question.

"Who was the other man, I didn't recognize him?" she asked, and curiously when Fugaku turned to look at her to give his answer the concern had melted away from her face, leaving it void.

"That was…" Fugaku began but then trailed off, the man's name escaping him. Which shouldn't be right, Fugaku had worked with him countless times before and Fugaku knew _everybody's_ name that he ever worked with.

"I thought that you were only sending Ishi and Kaito as well," Mikoto pointed out, her face still empty.

"I…did?" Fugaku whispered hesitantly, his breath speeding up as his mind raced over this. It was right so why did it feel wrong?

"You're under a genjutsu!" Mikoto said her voice urgent. Looking up once more Fugaku saw his wife's three tomoe Sharingan spinning rapidly.

"Kai!" Fugaku cried out, pushing his chakra around chaotically while slapping his hand together into the ram seal. With his next breath what was right was now so woefully wrong that Fugaku almost slapped himself for his lack of vigilance. "Chikushou!" he cursed again, sprinting into the house, knocking over a pair of clan members as he rushed past them.

"Daisho!" Fugaku called out to the manservant of the house as he passed him by, "Daisho, where did they take the injured man?"

"To th-the west side guest room! It has the most room…" Daisho answered, startled by the urgency in his master's voice. Whatever else he was going to say Fugaku lost as he sped down narrow hall after hall until he came to his desired location. He had just reached out his hand to the edge of the sliding door, ready to rip it out of his way, when a mass of limbs suddenly tore through the door, bringing Fugaku down with it.

Groaning, Fugaku pushed the unconscious man off of him, knowing that the assailant would have used this opportunity to escape took his time to check to older man's pulse. Feeling a steady rhythm and seeing no obvious signs of trauma Fugaku gently put the man back on the ground and entered the room. Two other clan members were in the room as well, one was another medic, a young girl barely chunin in rank, and the other was a member of the police force.

After checking to make sure that they were alive and well Fugaku surveyed the room in all its disorder. A small pool of blood stained the sheets of the bed where the spy had been placed and judging on its placement it was probably an injury to his side, a shard of wood in his ribs were the best odds. The window was open, shattered from the inside. Meaning the spy had rendered his men (and woman) unconscious before leaping through the window.

Looking outside Fugaku scowled deeply. The window gave an easy view to the small stream that runs through the clan compound and the spy would no doubt use that to hide both his scent and blood trails. Hearing the clattering of footsteps in the halls Fugaku turned to see many of the family that he had zipped passed rushing to see what was wrong.

"What the hell?"

"What happened?"

Who did this?" and nearly a thousand other such questions bombarded Fugaku all at once.

"Enough!" he roared over the racket, sweeping his right hand in front of him to punctuate his order. In the startled silence that followed Fugaku quickly gathered himself and looked through the crowd. "Gendo, Suzumi, get your squads together again and sweep the western perimeter, he can't have gotten too far. The rest of you get these people to the medics," he ordered and nearly in an instant he was almost alone again, Mikoto and Itachi lingering behind.

Looking at his wife, Fugaku said nothing. What could he say? That this entire event was a disaster? With a small sigh he began to walk past them into the hall to try and clean up the mess that was suddenly flung at his doorstep when something grabbed a hold of one of his fingers. Looking down he saw Itachi had reached out and grabbed the ring finger of his right hand, looking intently at the blood that was stained all over the appendage.

"Blood," was Itachi said. For a moment Fugaku pondered over what his child was trying to tell him. Itachi, unlike most three years, was not a chatterbox of inane babble and when he did speak there was often a wisdom there that was startling for one so young. About to brush Itachi's comment off and walk away it hit him like one of Jiraiya-sama's books when Mikoto does her surprise spring cleaning. Fugaku looks down at his crimson covered hands then whirls around to look at the pool on the bed and then finally back to Itachi. For the first time that day Fugaku truly smiled and he'd have placed a hand on Itachi's head if it wouldn't have ruined the evidence all over it.

"Very good Itachi, very good," He said as he walked away, a smile pulling at his lips. All was not lost.

"The Daimyo will see you now, sir," an aging orderly informed Naruto, ending his boredom infused suffering.

* * *

"Ah, very good!" Naruto said, jumping up to his feet, perhaps a little too quickly judging from the startled look the orderly gave him but he was still the boundless ball of energy of his younger days (though a little more mature and focused) and they had kept him waiting in the plain sitting room for over an hour.

It was two months since Naruto had left the Sages of Mt. Myoboku and although he had not changed physically, his wardrobe had. Sadly needing to erase any affiliation that he might have with Konoha, Naruto decided to replace his favored Tactical vest and trench coat. In their places he donned a layer of double linked chain mail under a simple black shirt and a dark grey cloak that helps him blend in with his future home.

The collar of the cloak went up to his mouth so if he held himself right, much of his lower face wouldn't be visible, but for the added effect of mystery Naruto threw a scarf into his ensemble. Once more dark grey in color he wrapped the soft cotton cloth around his lower face and left the trailing end hanging from his shoulder, giving him an almost nomadic look.

Just as he was checking out his purchases from the clothing store Naruto had noticed a lone stand right by the cashier. In this stand was nothing but varying styles of goggles which instantly brought Naruto back to his academy days. About to leave it at that Naruto noticed a single pair of goggles, their plastic lens a light blue tint and the rubber edges neon orange. Looking over his new wardrobe Naruto then noticed the travesty that he was about to commit. There was not one single shade of orange on any of his clothes! Naturally needing to rectify this he immediately grabbed those most wonderful goggles and added them to his pile. Naruto has yet to regret his impulsive buy.

Loudly cracking his neck as he stood up, earning himself a stink eye from the old man, Naruto was led into a corridor leaving the plain sitting room behind. As palaces of lords go, Nami's Daimyo's palace was by far the most plain that Naruto had ever been in. There were however odd patches, ever so faint, of discolored paint where the paintings and tapestries of the lord were placed. These little clues of absent accessories truly spoke of how badly things were beginning to get for the country of Wave. Opening what once could have been a grandiose door the old man shuffled in and then to the side to let Naruto into the audience chamber of the Daimyo.

"Wait here please," the old man ordered his voice and body quivering of old age.

"Sure thing," Naruto responded cheerfully as he watched the old man shuffle off. _'Let the old thing retire already,'_ Naruto thought, feeling a sense of pity for the servant. He didn't have to wait long before the old servant returned from a different door before clearing his throat as loudly as he could.

"The Lord and ruler of Nami no Kuni, Hamonshukun Kensei!" the servant announced proudly and loudly, which amounted to adding a slight whistle to his words only. Thankful for the scarf hiding his need to laugh Naruto nonetheless bowed deeply as the Daimyo entered the room. Surprisingly the lord was just a little older than Naruto himself was. He had near jet black hair, sharp cheek bones, and crisp green eyes. Yet despite his youth, he was a striking figure. He was dressed in elaborate robes that were probably the most expensive things in the entire palace.

"I am honored to be in your presence," Naruto stated as he once more bowed deeply to the young man.

"And I am honored to have met you," Kensei said, nodding his head in a gracious manner and then he made a motion for Naruto to take a seat on the cushion at his feet. "Now, my servant, Toshiro, has told me that you have a proposal for me, mister…" Kensei started but trailed off as Naruto had neglected to provide his name.

"Ah, I am terribly sorry my lord!" Naruto apologized, scratching his head in embarrassment, earning him a raised eyebrow from Kensei and a reproachful glare from Toshiro. "My name is Gufuu no Naruto," He said, bowing deeply again.

"'Fishcake of the Hurricane'?" Kensei asked incredulously. Sighing deeply Naruto played it like it was some long suffering issue of his (although he only chose the name a week ago).

"When I left my home I also left behind my name, 'Naruto' was the best thing at the time because I only had money for one bowl of ramen. I just figured that anything was better than my old name," Naruto said, sniffing in pride.

"Interesting," Kensei said to which Naruto simply shrugged his shoulders. It was the best that he could come up with. "Anyways, what was your proposal Naruto-dono?"

"Before I tell you my proposal, could you please answer a question of mine?" Naruto asked, leaning forward.

"And what question is that?"

"Konohagakure no Sato and Kirigakure no Sato are the two closest ninja villages and a man in your position will have had many dealing with their shinobi. So what I want to know is how would you rate their services?" Naruto asked. Seeing the guarded look cross Kensei's face he raised his hands in a nonthreatening gesture and said, "I hold no affiliation with neither village and I promise that what you say will not get back to either village."

"What do you mean by 'services'?" the young lord asked cautiously. Naruto nodded sagely as he had expected the question.

"I mean how would you rate the quality of their shinobi, their mission completion rates, mission pricing, and any number of other factors?" Naruto clarified. Kensei looked at Naruto for a moment, attempting to see past his (awesome) blue tinted goggles, into his eyes, and discern the shinobi's true meaning. After a moment he turned to Toshiro and they shared a significant look of their own before Kensei answered.

"Alright, I'll play along," he said, before taking a deep breath. "I find that the Shinobi of Konohagakure are overall excellent in quality except for their arrogance. While most are professional enough to restrain such behavior in front of a customer, the way they have acted towards my people before, during, or after a mission leaves me wanting. And their prices are rather exorbitant.

"On the other hand the Shinobi of Kirigakure are lesser in quality as compared to Konoha shinobi but they offer lesser prices for their missions. But where Konoha shinobi are arrogant Kiri shinobi are cruel and barbaric." Kensei paused for a moment before adding on, "I really wish I didn't have to deal with either village." At this admission Naruto raised his eyebrows. Some discontent from the daimyo he fully expected, but an open admission of dislike for both was like the man handing him a coupon to eat free at Ichiraku's Ramen stand for life.

"How would you like to deal with neither one again?" Naruto asked. Surprised Kensei's eyebrows both shot up.

"What are you asking?" Kensei demanded his voice incredulous.

"My proposal is this, my lord: I want to build a Hidden Village in Nami no Kuni," Naruto said, confidence oozing from his voice. Kensei however, felt differently and his scowl showed it.

"Proposals go both ways, Naruto-dono, and a Hidden Village costs _a lot_ of money to build. So what do I get in return for allowing you to build your village?" Kensei all but demanded.

"A bridge," Naruto answered cheerfully.

"A-a bridge?" Kensei repeated disbelieving.

"I know right? It's so stupidly simple you want to hit yourself for not thinking to do it before!" Naruto hummed, his cheery attitude bubbling everywhere.

"How can building a bridge cover building a hidden village?" Kensei asked doubt spilling into his words.

"Because it will make you and your country obscene amounts of money," Naruto answered vaguely, his happy demeanor refusing to leave for one second. Kensei took a moment to take a few breaths. He really hated dealing with Shinobi.

"Some elaboration is required," Kensei said at length. Instead of answering outright as he had done before Naruto reached into his pack and pulled out a rolled up map which he promptly unrolled, placed two weight stones on the sides of the map to keep it from rolling up again and then slid it towards Kensei. Thanks to the small size of the audience room Kensei didn't have to bother Toshiro to get it for him as all he had to do was reach out and pull it the rest of the way to him.

"What, exactly, am I looking at?" he asked, staring at the map of Hi no Kuni and Nami no Kuni.

"A trade map that I modified for you to understand how to help yourselves," Naruto answered. The young lord raised an eye brow at that. Modified was an overstatement. It was mostly untouched except for a thick black arch over the water that separated Hi and Nami with what looked like chicken scratch for 'Bridge' written over top of it. From the 'bridge' there was then a straight black line that connected directly to the Southern Fire Trade Route that also had chicken scratch for 'road'.

"That's not a bridge, that's a bridge and a road," Kensei pointed out his voice and face kept controlled despite the humor he felt.

"A technicality," Naruto said, waving it off. Kensei scoffed at that.

"I still don't understand how this can help me and my people," Kensei said, passing the map back to Naruto. Naruto considered what to say as he returned the map back to its place in his pack.

"By creating an easily accessible route to a not so easily accessible country you will gain the interest of many merchants wanting to find new opportunities in new places," Naruto said looking Kensei in the eye, "And if you build a road at your expense instead of having the Daimyo of Fire do it, you will ingratiate yourself, however partially, to the man. And he has many contacts with the Merchants of Hi no Kuni.

"And then there is the sea trade to consider," Naruto continued, "You are right next to one of the major sea trade routes but because of the poor conditions of your home you haven't been able to generate or keep much interest. But once the land trade starts rolling in, there will be some who would be those willing to once more trade with your people."

"How long do you think this will take?" Kensei asked him. Naruto closed his eyes and sat back for a moment thinking on the answer.

"Honestly I would say about one and a half to two years before things really get rolling," He answered, thinking back on his reference of time from when he was training. "The Southern Trade Route is a heavily traveled road so many people will see the construction and spread the word so that by the time you are finished building many, many people will want to see this new 'Land of Opportunity'."

"Hmm…we could probably make that a sign," Kensei said, lost in thought. He was interrupted by Naruto's sharp laugh which was followed by a low growl of disapproval from Toshiro. "Ah, I seem to have forgotten myself somewhat," Kensei apologized.

"So glad you like the idea, my lord," Naruto said, a near triumphant smirk hidden behind his scarf. Kensei sat in silence for a few moments more, idly stroking the stubble under his chin as he thought deeply about what was just proposed to him. At last he seemed to have made a decision for when he looked up again he was no longer in doubt.

"Gufuu no Naruto, you have given me much to think about and I think it would be an injustice if I were to give you an answer right away," Kensei said, "So I must apologize but I would like some time to think on this proposal more deeply before giving an answer."

"I understand my lord, you must, of course, think for your people first and how this will benefit them," Naruto agreed, "How does a week sound to you?"

"A week should be proficient, Naruto-dono," Kensei answered, and then stood up. Naruto stood up with him and bowed to the young lord.

"It has been an honor and a pleasure to have met you, Lord Hamonshukun Kensei," Naruto said, respect flowing with his words.

"And it has been my honor and pleasure to have met you, Gufuu no Naruto," Kensei said and started to turn away, but then he stopped and turning back to face Naruto he posed a question. "What will you be doing during this week's time?" He asked. Naruto thought on the question for a moment before shrugging.

"I will be exploring your country for a bit," he replied, "I have only been to Nami a few times, I want to use this time to fully explore Nami no Kuni." Smiling at the answer, Kensei gave him another, small, bow of his head and walked off with Toshiro walking behind him. After a few minutes of walking around the mansion they eventually made it to Kensei's private quarters, where, once the shouji was slid shut, all pretenses were dropped.

"Get me out of this damn thing, please!" Kensei begged as he began undoing the numerous ties and buttons.

"Slow down! You'll rip something!" Toshiro countered, stooping to pick up the discarded Haori with practiced maneuvering. What followed were five minuets of bickering as the two men fought to get the fancy kimono off carefully.

"Freedom!" Kensei cried as the kimono, painstakingly folded, was placed into a box and then moved into the wardrobe of Kensei's rooms.

"Really? A little more dignity couldn't hurt you my lord," Toshiro chided with a playful scowl. An old game these two played, ever since Kensei was child.

"I'm plenty dignified, when the occasion calls for it," Kensei retorted, slipping on a more comfortable, less expensive kimono. Sighing in resignation Toshiro moved to leave the room.

"I'll go make us some tea," He said as he slid the door open.

"Alright," Kensei replied absently, looking out the window with his right arm propped up on his right knee. He was in the same position when Toshiro returned ten minutes later. He didn't make a move as the old servant placed the tray of two steaming cups of tea on the ground next to Kensei and then sagged to the ground on the other side of it.

"Now what could be on your mind my lord?" He asked, knowing full well what was on the young man's mind.

"Villages and bridges," He replied, picking up his own cup inattentively. He got burned for it, literally, as some of the tea sloshed over and onto his hand. Toshiro didn't make a move to help his cursing lord as he contentedly sipped on his own tea.

"It does have its merits," Toshiro commented, lowering his tea. "But I do not like the look of him, my lord."

"You mean the lack of look?" Kensei replied, alluding to Naruto's hidden visage. "That's nothing new old friend, almost all shinobi hide their faces to some degree." Toshiro scowled at Kensei's slightly naïve response.

"Shinobi of one of the villages yes, but an unaffiliated shinobi who hides his face? That is asking for trouble my lord," Toshiro retorted. Kensei scoffed.

"He can't be that bad. After all, he gave us the advantage," Kensei said. Toshiro thought on that for a moment and was confused.

"How so?" he asked, looking over at Kensei.

"He told us what we needed to do to get our country out of this funk we've found ourselves in," Kensei supplied. Toshiro nearly scoffed again. To him it was all that shipping magnate, Gato's, fault. How else could you explain the almost sudden down turn of their economy when Kensei had denied the man exclusive shipping rights to their country a few months back? But they had been over this a few times and Kensei would not hear of how a single man could ruin an entire country. Regardless of how powerful he was.

"I do not understand how _that_ is an advantage?" Toshiro snipped. Kensei rolled his eyes at that, understanding where the old man was coming from but still annoyed by his attitude.

"We could build the bridge and road but not let him build his village," Kensei supplied. Toshiro brightened up just about instantly.

"We could do that!" he exclaimed instantly liking the idea. Kensei had forgotten that Toshiro was nearly the last of his line of Samurai retainers, their ability to manipulate chakra having long since been bred out of them.

"Now that wouldn't be honorable old friend," Kensei reprimanded to which Toshiro scowled in response. Honor. He sometimes hated that word, especially when Kensei used it to route him.

"We seem to have gotten off topic my lord," he said, steering them back onto safer grounds. Kensei merely shrugged in response.

"Why rush, we have a whole week to go yet," he said, leaning back onto his elbows.

"Procrastination is the devil," Toshiro warned in a sing song voice. Again Kensei rolled his eyes but he relented.

"Fine, why do you think we shouldn't go ahead with this village?" He asked, rolling over onto his side to face Toshiro. "I think it would be a fantastic idea, we won't have to rely on villages in other countries with their own agendas." Toshiro gave the young lord a scathing look.

"We could very well find ourselves ruled over by our new shinobi benefactors like in the Water Country. I hear the Mizukage is a blood thirsty beast willing to kill even children to 'purify' the land," Toshiro said. Kensei opened his mouth to retort but was stopped when Toshiro raised a hand. "It was only an example; he may not be like that."

Toshiro continued on, "But in this day and age he will need to bring in various shinobi of a less than savory sort in order to bring his village up to speed with the rest. And as we both know, the strongest Shinobi rules over the hidden village. What if Naruto-san is killed by one of the Shinobi he brings in and they are as brutish as some of the others?" This did give Kensei pause, before he scowled.

"Why must everything be so difficult?" he groaned, flopping onto his back.

"Because you are the ruler of a country, my lord," Toshiro said, finishing off the last of his tea. They sat in silence for a moment more before Kensei quickly sat up, finished his tea and got up to leave. "And where are you going young man?" Toshiro asked his keen eyes boring into the back of Kensei's head.

"To go somewhere else to think, this stuffy old mansion is getting in the way," he said before opening the sliding door. Toshiro heaved a long suffering sigh as he picked himself up and then their tray of empty tea cups. Looking out the window he saw his lord walking down towards the beach at a brisk pace, his head stooped at a low angle. Toshiro smiled at him as he walked away, _'At least I got him to think,'_ he thought, moving out of the room as well.

* * *

_**Kissshhh**_

"Huuunn…" Sasuke groaned as the glowing red blade of Kusanagi was pressed against the jagged gash in his side, the leather straps of his sandals creaking as he bit down against the pain. But despite all the pain he was feeling, he still wasn't waking up. He almost laughed at it all, wanting to wake up from this weird dream but his family was alive!

_**HIS FAMILY WAS ALIVE!**_

It was as if the gods themselves had granted his greatest wish, his one desire to see his mother smile again, his father nod in pride, and his brother to _live_! And yet what does he do when he is almost within arms reach? What does he do when he sees those long missed faces? He freezes. He just stares at them dumbly, not even believing that they are real. But they were, they were just as real as the two kunai thrown at him from his blind spot, just as real as the man's blood that spilled as he cut him in two. Just as real as the paper bomb that was attached to the handle of one of the kunai.

He should have known they were real when it was his father's own hands that had moved to stop his bleeding. He should have known when he saw his mother's familiar worried face as he was moved past her. But he didn't and only now, so far from them did he see that they were indeed real. That this _world_ was real. Dismissing the shadow clone that had tended to him Sasuke sat up and stared into the fire. It had been surreal to see Konoha so different, to see the Uchiha District to be so full of life. It startled and dazed him but he knew he had to see them!

"And that wasn't your best move, teme," A voice sad, in an oddly familiar and yet annoying whine. Looking up quickly Sasuke's eyes spread to the size of saucers at who sat before him on a log that he was sure wasn't there.

"Yeah I'm not here but less about me more about you, teme," Naruto said. This was not the Naruto that Sasuke had spent so much time fighting, but the annoying little brother that had served to irritate him at every step. The brother that had kept him grounded.

"Wha?" Sasuke slurred in stupefied confusion, pain and lack of sleep stealing his speech.

"Oi, oi! You need to think about your mistake here!" Naruto shouted, snapping his fingers to get Sasuke's attention fully.

"Mi-mistake?" Sasuke said. What mistake?

"You going to the Uchiha district!" 'Naruto' yelled

"I had to see them!"

"And two men are dead because you were selfish! Two _Uchiha_ men!" Sasuke's eyes widened, not at the accusation but in sudden realization that he _did_ kill two of his clansmen. Staring down into his hands now washed of their blood he began to tremble. He killed two of his own! He was no better than-

"Finish that thought and I'll kick yer ass," 'Naruto' stated calmly. Looking up at him again Sasuke tried to argue.

"But I am," he said weakly, his hands numbly dropping to his side.

"I don't think Danzo ever regretted killing your family," 'Naruto said dryly. "Besides there's something else for you to consider, something worse." Sasuke snorted.

"What could be worse than killing two of my own?" He asked derisively.

"You left your blood behind," Naruto said smoothly. Sasuke's first thought was _'So?'_ but then he actually followed through and his eyes widened again.

"Fuck," he said before burying his hands into his face.

"Yep," 'Naruto' agreed, "That's going to be one hell of a puzzle for them to figure out." Sasuke could only nod. He wasn't even a twinkle in his mother's eye yet, leaving his blood around like that would cause a whole lot of questions that couldn't be answered by a sane person.

"What should I do?" he asked the hallucination. What else could he do? He didn't have anyone else.

"Rest," 'Naruto' said, turning around on his 'log' so that his back was facing Sasuke. "You're a mess right now, so sleep it off and we'll make our next move after you wake up." Sasuke again nodded, leave it to his imaginary friend to have the most sense. As he lay down on his back Naruto had one last thing to say.

"I'll keep watch," he said. Sasuke gave a light smile as he drifted off.

It was nice to have someone watching over him again.

**I know what you are thinking, "God damn it! you made Sasuke crazy!" in my defense I shall retort, "Isn't he already bat shit crazy?" I chose genin age Naruto as he is who Sasuke was closest to and the one most likely to bring Sasuke back to the "light", at least in my fiction. Kishimoto may take a different path but we shall see. **

**Now the reason why this took so long to get out was because I lost interest at the end of chapter 4 and didn't write anything for a little while. And then my good friend Sloth moved in. and I didn't write anything for a LONG time. I was saved by a kindly soul by the name of RamnKnight, who wished me a happy new years and for me to get the next chapter out soon. well didn't I feel pathetic? so I kicked Sloth out and got crackin' and now a month and a half later here we are. **

**so everybody, please give RamenKnight a great big thank you or we probably wouldnt have this chapter, at least until Tellemicus Sundance lit a fire under my arse.**


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